Red Bull Ring DTM: Green denies Rast in epic pole duel
Audi's Jamie Green completed a clean sweep of DTM pole positions at the Red Bull Ring, narrowly edging out stablemate Rene Rast.
Photo by: Alexander Trienitz
Green and Rast were in a league of their own in Sunday qualifying, their pole fight settled with a pair of last-gasp laps, as the Brit came out on top courtesy of a 1m21.955s effort.
Having dominated proceedings on Saturday, Audi was once again out front at the start of Sunday qualifying, with Rast leading the way after the opening runs.
The German took over at the front with a 1m22.237s lap and improved to a 1m22.152s next time around, with Green slotting in just 0.014s behind.
The pair remained first and second until Green edged ahead of Rast with a 1m22.090s, his rival failing to improve and both of them left with one more shot at a pole lap.
As the chequered flag flew, Rast moved back ahead on a 1m22.010s, only for Green to finally deny his fellow Audi driver pole by 0.055s.
Just as he did on Saturday, BMW's reigning champion Marco Wittmann again broke up Audi's dominance, slotting in third, two tenths adrift of pole.
This left him ahead of two more Audi cars, Mike Rockenfeller and Nico Muller, who set identical times and will line up fourth and fifth respectively.
Gary Paffett was the lead Mercedes in sixth, followed by BMW's Timo Glock, who had a big moment in the final corner of his last lap while running right ahead of Rast.
Championship leader Mattias Ekstrom, who boosted his title hopes with a win on Saturday, was only the fifth-fastest Audi and eighth overall, with BMW duo Tom Blomqvist and Bruno Spengler making up the top 10.
Mercedes endured a particularly disappointing session, with all its cars bar Paffett lining up between 13th and 18th - and its lead driver in the standings, Lucas Auer, last on the grid.
Qualifying results
| Cla | # | Driver | Car | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 53 |  Jamie Green |
Audi RS5 DTM | 1'21.955 | |
| 2 | 33 |  René Rast |
Audi RS5 DTM | 1'22.010 | 0.055 |
| 3 | 11 | Marco Wittmann |
BMW M4 DTM | 1'22.156 | 0.201 |
| 4 | 99 | Mike Rockenfeller |
Audi RS5 DTM | 1'22.206 | 0.251 |
| 5 | 51 |  Nico Müller |
Audi RS5 DTM | 1'22.206 | 0.251 |
| 6 | 2 | Gary Paffett |
Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 1'22.243 | 0.288 |
| 7 | 16 | Timo Glock |
BMW M4 DTM | 1'22.268 | 0.313 |
| 8 | 5 |  Mattias Ekström |
Audi RS5 DTM | 1'22.337 | 0.382 |
| 9 | 31 | Tom Blomqvist |
BMW M4 DTM | 1'22.390 | 0.435 |
| 10 | 7 |  Bruno Spengler |
BMW M4 DTM | 1'22.400 | 0.445 |
| 11 | 36 |  Maxime Martin |
BMW M4 DTM | 1'22.405 | 0.450 |
| 12 | 15 |  Augusto Farfus |
BMW M4 DTM | 1'22.429 | 0.474 |
| 13 | 3 | Paul di Resta |
Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 1'22.454 | 0.499 |
| 14 | 48 |  Edoardo Mortara |
Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 1'22.497 | 0.542 |
| 15 | 63 | Maro Engel |
Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 1'22.526 | 0.571 |
| 16 | 6 | Robert Wickens |
Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 1'22.527 | 0.572 |
| 17 | 77 |  Loic Duval |
Audi RS5 DTM | 1'22.629 | 0.674 |
| 18 | 22 |  Lucas Auer |
Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 1'22.682 | 0.727 |
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