Wittmann ahead of Rast – BMW front row in Austria

Marco Wittmann secured his first pole position of the season at the penultimate round of the DTM at the Red Bull Ring. The BMW driver from Schubert Motorsport took 1:27.709 minutes to complete his fastest lap of the 4.326-kilometre Alpine circuit on Saturday morning. In doing so, he backed up the fine form he had shown in free practice.

"It has been a while since my last pole position in the DTM, so I am really pleased. After the mixed weather conditions in the free practice sessions on Friday, we did not really know how we compared to the opposition. That made it all the more pleasing to produce such a strong display. We now want to back that up in the race," said the man from Fürth.

His team-mate René Rast was just 0.081 seconds slower and will start the 13th race of the season next to Wittmann in second place. Gilles Magnus from Aston Martin team Comtoyou Racing, ended the opening qualifying session in third place. Emil Frey Racing driver Jack Aitken, who is currently second in the table, was fourth. His team-mate Thierry Vermeulen completed the top five in his Ferrari 296 GT3.

The first few laps of Saturday morning's qualifying at the Red Bull Ring were used to get some heat into the tyres. With temperatures around 14 degrees Celsius, the Pirelli slicks were at their best on a dry track in the final third of the session. Rast was the first driver to dip below 1:28.000 minutes and took the lead with about five minutes remaining. Not long after that, he was replaced at the top of the timing sheet by Wittmann, who set the fastest time on his eighth lap. Magnus also briefly moved ahead of Rast, but the Belgian's time was scratched for exceeding track limits in turn ten.

Aitken snatched fourth place in the dying seconds. That puts the Brit in a great position to take the lead in the Drivers' Championship. Almost all of his rivals will start from well down the field when the race gets underway at 13:30: championship leader Lucas Auer could do no better than 13th place in a Mercedes-AMG GT3 at his home event, while third-placed Ayhancan Güven from Manthey EMA had to settle for 19th in his Porsche 911 GT3 R. Jordan Pepper (fourth in the table) was 15th in qualifying and will line up one place ahead of Thomas Preining, who is fifth in the championship.

Results are HERE