Rast Takes Final Pole of Season After Fraga Causes Red Flag

Abt Audi driver Rene Rast claimed pole position for the final race of the DTM season at Hockenheim after fastest lap setter Felipe Fraga lost his best time for causing a red flag.

Rast, who has an outside chance of winning his fourth series title, benefited from Fraga having his quickest time of 1:36.625 deleted from the scoring table.

The Brazilian bounced over the inside curb at the fast Turn 1 right-hander, causing him to lose the rear of his Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 which slid into the tire barrier.

At the time, Rast was second in the timing charts on a 1:36.817 that ended up becoming the pole number.

Race control’s decision not to resume the session had repercussions for several drivers who were yet to complete their second qualifying runs.

It resulted in a shaken-up order for the last race of the year, with Clemens Schmid taking a season-best second place in Grasser Racing Team’s No. 85 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo.

Attempto Racing Audi driver Marius Zug qualified third, ahead of Race 1 podium finisher Marco Wittmann in the best of the BMW M4 GT3s.

Nico Mueller took fifth but will drop two positions on the grid for using an additional ‘joker’ tire outside the main allocation. Sheldon van der Linde registered the sixth-fastest lap in his Schubert Motorsport BMW.

Van der Linde’s nearest championship rival Lucas Auer could only manage 11th after being unable to improve on his early-session benchmark due to the red flag.

An additional three points for pole moved Rast to 18 points behind van der Linde, with a maximum of 26 points still available to be earned.

Fraga slotted into 15th on the grid for Race 2 using his fallback time, while Mirko Bortolotti was eliminated from title contention after qualifying down in 18th.

The Italian needed to take pole and win the race to have a chance of capturing the championship.

A reduced field of 20 drivers took part in qualifying after several were involved in accidents during the early stages of Saturday’s contest.

Dennis Olsen, Thomas Preining, David Schumacher, Nick Cassidy, Rolf Ineichen, Arjun Maini and Mikael Grenier have all been withdrawn from the second race.

RESULTS: Qualifying 2