René Rast claims pole position as Marco Wittmann hits trouble at Assen
Audi Sport Team Rosberg driver René Rast scored his fourth pole position of the year in a very competitive qualifying session at Assen as Saturday’s winner, BMW’s Marco Wittmann, could not set a competitive lap time due to problems with the turbo of his engine.
The Assen circuit had cloudy and windy conditions, with the forecast expecting the weather to remain dry, in contrast with Saturday’s rain.
The entire field took to the track at the green light, with Rast encountering BMW drivers Sheldon van der Linde and Wittmann during his first flying laps, with both BMW drivers investigated for blocking.
The woes for Wittmann didn’t end there though, as Saturday’s winner returned to the pits without setting a competitive lap time, complaining he had no power and no drive, also stating that there was nothing else he could have done to get out of Rast’s way.
Cars returned to the track for a final run with six minutes on the clock. Robin Frijns did an evaluation lap and returned to the pits, with his RS 5 DTM parked directly on the parc fermé.
Wittmann returned to the track with barely a minute and a half left on the clock as Rast improved on Frijns’ lap time, at that time topping the list. Despite Team RMG’s efforts, Wittmann had to abort his final attempt, still with technical issues.
Rast scored his fourth pole position of the year with a lap time of 1:24.849, with Team WRT’s Jonathan Aberdein clocking a competitive lap as the chequered flag waved over the track to finish second, 0.132 seconds behind. Audi Sport Team Phoenix’s Mike Rockenfeller finished third, just one thousandth of a second ahead of Team Abt Sportsline’s Nico Müller.
Frijns was fifth in the end, ahead of van der Linde, the first non Audi on the grid. Team Phoenix’s Loïc Duval was seventh, half a second off the pace, followed by BMW Team RBM’s Philipp Eng, with Team RMG’s Timo Glock in ninth. Team WRT’s Pietro Fittipaldi completed the top ten.
The Aston Martin Vantage DTMs again struggled for pace in what is deemed as the fastest track on the DTM calendar, with Daniel Juncadella the fastest driver for R-Motorsport in 14th place, 1.2 seconds behind Rast.
Rast said after the session: “I’m very happy, it’s a very good starting position and three points for the championship. My first run was a bit compromised because of traffic but the second went better, as opposed to yesterday.”
Aberdein: “The first run didn’t go as planned because of traffic but, in the second run, I did all the corners correctly and put it on the front row, so that’s fine!”
The start of Race 2 is scheduled for 13:30 CEST.
