Photo: DTM Media

Ferdinand Habsburg claims his maiden DTM pole position at Zolder

By

WRT driver Ferdinand Habsburg pulled a last-gasp effort to take his career first pole position in qualifying for the second DTM race of the weekend at Zolder. The independent Audi driver claimed pole ahead of Team Rosberg’s René Rast and Team ABT Sportsline’s Robin Frijns.

Cold and misty conditions welcomed the field on Sunday morning, but with dry weather forecasted for the time of the race.

The fight for the top spot during the first run was frantic, with WRT’s Fabio Scherer, Team Phoenix’s Benoît Tréluyer and Rast having lap times deleted for exceeding the track limits.

The entire field returned to the track with six minutes to go, with most drivers just having enough time to complete two flying laps.

Team ABT Sporsline driver Nico Müller climbed up to third provisional place, but Rast came through on his last effort to climb to the top spot, with Müller’s team-mate Frijns a close second.

But it would be Habsburg who, with the chequered flag waving over the main straight, would take the pole position with a time of 1:18.879, beating Rast by 0.069 seconds and with Frijns in third, 0.105 behind.

Scherer qualified in fourth, 0.133 seconds behind his team-mate, with Müller in fifth, 0.156 seconds off the pace. Aberdein was the fastest BMW driver in sixth, 0.184 seconds behind Habsburg, with Team Rosberg’s Jamie Green in seventh, 0.222 seconds off the pace.

Team RBM driver Philipp Eng finished eighth, 0.454 seconds behind the pole position time, with Mike Rockenfeller half-a-second off the pace. ART Grand Prix driver Robert Kubica completed a good session to finish tenth, 0.533 seconds off the pace.

Habsburg said after the session: “I feel like the champion of the session. I’m so happy, I made so many mistakes and I knew I had it. I had a bit of oversteer in the first sector, but I gave it my best and I nailed it, I just got it!”

Rast has further extended his championship lead to 279 points, 12 ahead of Müller and 16 over Frijns.

The start of Race 2 is scheduled for 13:30 CEST.