Photo: BMW Motorsport

Marco Wittmann scores his third pole of 2019 in red-flagged session at Assen

By

BMW Motorsport Team RMG driver Marco Wittmann made the most of a complicated qualifying session at Assen to score his third pole position of the year ahead of championship leader Audi Sport Team Rosberg’s René Rast.

The session started with the entire field taking to the track as there were dark clouds over the track, with a rain forecast for the time of the session.

The session was red flagged at half-point due to R-Motorsport’s Jake Dennis stopping on the track with no power, with Wittmann and Rast at the top of the classification. Dennis had to abandon the session as he received outside assistance to return to the pits.

The session was restarted with just over ten minutes on the clock, with positions remaining stable as most drivers were unable to improve their lap times. BMW drivers at Team RMG Timo Glock and at Team RBM Sheldon van der Linde and Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline’s Nico Müller had lap times deleted for exceeding the track limits.

Wittmann scored pole with a time of 1:25.434, 0.158 seconds ahead of Rast, with Audi Sport Team Phoenix’s Loïc Duval in third.

Team WRT’s Pietro Fittipaldi qualified in fourth, just a tenth ahead of Glock, with Müller and van der Linde next, the three separated by just three-thousandths of a second.

Bruno Spengler was eighth for BMW Team RMG, half a second off the pace, with BMW Team RBM’s Philipp Eng in ninth. His team-mate Joel Eriksson completed the top ten.

The session proved to be dismal for R-Motorsport, who suffered from their lack of engine power, qualifying in the last four positions of the grid, with Daniel Juncadella the fastest driver for the Swiss team, 1.2 seconds off the pace.

Rast said after the session: “The second set didn’t have the grip, I think nobody improved on their second run, this year the first runs are the fastest. I’m very happy with second and two points in the championship, so let’s see what happens and wait for the rain.”

The start of Race 1 is scheduled for 13:30 CEST.