Qualifying report
DTM Moscow
Moscow DTM: Wittmann tops qualifying, Rast on pole
Reigning DTM champion Marco Wittmann topped Saturday's qualifying session at Moscow Raceway, but his five-place grid penalty meant rookie Rene Rast claimed pole position.
Valentin Khorounzhiy
Edited: Jul 22, 2017, 12:38 PM
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BMW driver Wittmann, who sits 10th in the DTM standings and has yet to win a race this year, has two Moscow poles to his name and was again the standout over one lap in this session.
But a five-place grid penalty, assessed after Wittmann had picked up his third reprimand of the season at the Norisring, gave Audi driver Rast pole instead.
Rast, who had set the best lap in practice earlier on Saturday, was the first driver to surpass that benchmark – and did it in some style, his 1m27.179s effort representing an improvement of more than four tenths.
Championship leader Mattias Ekstrom made it an Audi 1-2 shortly thereafter, but the pair were then split by BMW duo Augusto Farfus and Timo Glock.
And at the halfway point in the session, it was the Bavarian marque that held the top spot, courtesy of Wittmann.
Nobody came close to matching the leading duo in the second half of the session, and while Rast himself was up on Wittmann's lap in the opening sector, he eventually found himself just a few thousandths on his previous best effort.
With Wittmann's penalty dropping him to sixth, Rast will be joined on the front row by fellow Audi driver Mike Rockenfeller, whose participation this weekend was in doubt after he sustained a fracture in his left foot in a heavy crash with Gary Paffett at the Norisring.
Rockenfeller could be seen limping around the paddock and using crutches, with McLaren F1 junior Nyck de Vries having been called up to be on stand-by, but the German had recovered enough to compete - and finished the session just two tenths off Wittmann.
Farfus and Glock will be on row two for BMW, ahead of Ekstrom, Wittmann, Jamie Green's Audi and Tom Blomqvist's BMW.
Mercedes' top driver Gary Paffett led Audi's Loic Duval in ninth, as the Silver Arrows endured a torrid qualifying session, their C63 DTM currently heaviest on the grid due to performance weights.
Duval will have to start 15th as he, like Wittmann, is serving a five-place grid penalty for having accumulated three warnings.
Among the Mercedes roster, Lucas Auer - who is just two points off Ekstrom in the standings - will only start 13th, while Edoardo Mortara ended his session with an off, placing 17th.
Qualifying results:
ClaDriverCarTimeGap 1 
René Rast Audi RS5 DTM 1'27.155 0.120 2 Mike Rockenfeller Audi RS5 DTM 1'27.253 0.218 3 
Augusto Farfus BMW M4 DTM 1'27.340 0.305 4 Timo Glock BMW M4 DTM 1'27.376 0.341 5 
Mattias Ekström Audi RS5 DTM 1'27.393 0.358 6 Marco Wittmann * BMW M4 DTM 1'27.035 7 
Jamie Green Audi RS5 DTM 1'27.450 0.415 8 Tom Blomqvist BMW M4 DTM 1'27.467 0.432 9 Gary Paffett Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM 1'27.538 0.503 10 
Bruno Spengler BMW M4 DTM 1'27.612 0.577 11 Robert Wickens Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM 1'27.625 0.590 12 
Nico Müller Audi RS5 DTM 1'27.734 0.699 13 
Lucas Auer Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM 1'27.757 0.722 14 
Maxime Martin BMW M4 DTM 1'27.786 0.751 15 
Loic Duval * Audi RS5 DTM 1'27.541 0.506 16 Paul di Resta Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM 1'28.057 1.022 17 
Edoardo Mortara Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM 1'28.134 1.099 18 Maro Engel Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM 1'28.382 1.347
** denotes five-place grid penalty*
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