The battle for the best starting grid positions for the Sunday DTM race at the Hockenheimring has been decided: Timo Glock took his BMW M4 DTM to a lap time of 1m31.406s to secure pole position. Yesterday already, Glock ended up as the best-placed BMW driver in the first race of the season, in which he finished second behind race winner Auer. For Glock, this pole position is his second in the DTM. The 35-year-old was already first on the starting grid on 13 September, 2015 at Oschersleben.
There is a first today for Audi driver René Rast as he claimed his maiden front row starting grid position. He will starting from second place next to Glock. Jamie Green and the best-placed Mercedes-AMG driver Edoardo Mortara will line up on the second row of the grid.
Augusto Farfus had bad luck in the 20 minutes’ qualifying session. On his final attempt, the Brazilian improved from 18th to second, but had his lap time disallowed as he had crossed the finish line 0.1 seconds after the time had run out.
DTM qualifying on Sunday got underway in a slight drizzle. On a drying track, the lead changed hands several times. Saturday race winner Auer temporarily showed in first place, just like reigning DTM champion Marco Wittmann. Eventually, Auer ended up eighth, Wittmann will be starting his 58th DTM race from the penultimate grid position. The race starts at 15.15 hrs, ARD is broadcasting live from Hockenheim from 15.00 hrs.
Timo Glock (BMW, 1st grid position): “That was a qualifying like we want it for the fans. There was a new leader almost every lap. Yesterday was already very good as a start. When a second-place finish isn’t a motivation boost, you better go home. Today, I had a really good feeling in the car again. We made a few more changes that were very good. Especially at the beginning, it was difficult with the changeable conditions, so normally the last one to cross the finish line has the fastest time when the track dries out. For me, the in-lap back to the pits seemed to last forever. It was enough. I am very happy. Now, we have used two sets of tyres in qualifying, but some of the others probably haven’t. That could be a slight disadvantage for us. But we have the three points in the bag. And now, we will wait and see what we can do there up front.”
René Rast (Audi, 2nd grid position Platz): “Especially as it was wet, I was having a hard time with the rain tyres. First of all, I had to find my way. But as the track dried out, I felt really well. The car was outstading and we had a good strategy. With myself and Jamie Green in second and third place, we are in a good position as a team. From that perspective, I am very happy. We only used one set of tyres. Now, we still have two sets for the race, which, of course, is an advantage. Yesterday, the race pace was very good, so we can be confident going into the race today.”