Misano DTM: Rast on pole again, trouble for Dovizioso

Dovizioso made a mistake on his first flying lap at the tight Turn 14 hairpin, locking up and drifting wide into the gravel before gently touching the barrier to cause a red flag.

After asking for assistance in reversing the WRT Audi out of the gravel, Dovizioso continued and rejoined the session when the green flag was waved. 

The early delay meant Rast did not repeat his Saturday strategy of setting a banker lap in the first runs in order to conserve tyres. 

Rast placed second after the first runs behind Audi stablemate Robin Frijns, with the provisional polesitter deciding against making a second run. 

The DTM championship leader then fired in a 1m25.384s lap in the final minutes of the session to jump ahead of Frijns by 0.070s. 

Audi again dominated the timesheets, this time by locking out the top five positions. 

Jonathan Aberdein secured third on the grid for the WRT Audi squad ahead of Nico Muller, while Pietro Fittipaldi took his best qualifying result by sealing fifth. 

Saturday race winner Marco Wittmann was the leading BMW in sixth place ahead of Loic Duval. 

BMW's Joel Eriksson retired with a technical problem in Saturday's race, but recovered to lead the times during the first runs before eventually settling for eighth. 

Philipp Eng was ninth ahead of Timo Glock, who set a late best lap after failing to see a competitive time during the first runs.

Dovizioso would eventually take 14th, lapping 1.3s off Rast's benchmark, placing behind Mike Rockenfeller and Bruno Spengler on the grid.

Jake Dennis was the lead R-Motorsport Aston Martin driver in 15th, placing ahead of Daniel Juncadella, Paul di Resta and Ferdinand Habsburg.

Qualifying results:

Cla	#	Driver	Car	Time	Gap
1	33	René Rast	Audi RS 5 Turbo DTM	1'25.384
2	4	Robin Frijns	Audi RS 5 Turbo DTM	1'25.454	0.070
3	27	Jonathan Aberdein	Audi RS 5 Turbo DTM	1'25.584	0.200
4	51	Nico Müller	Audi RS 5 Turbo DTM	1'25.632	0.248
5	21	Pietro Fittipaldi	Audi RS 5 Turbo DTM	1'25.659	0.275
6	11	Marco Wittmann	BMW M4 Turbo DTM	1'25.764	0.380
7	28	Loic Duval	Audi RS 5 Turbo DTM	1'25.767	0.383
8	47	Joel Eriksson	BMW M4 Turbo DTM	1'25.803	0.419
9	25	Philipp Eng	BMW M4 Turbo DTM	1'25.805	0.421
10	16	Timo Glock	BMW M4 Turbo DTM	1'25.814	0.430
11	31	Sheldon Van Der Linde	BMW M4 Turbo DTM	1'25.981	0.597
12	99	Mike Rockenfeller	Audi RS 5 Turbo DTM	1'26.005	0.621
13	7	Bruno Spengler	BMW M4 Turbo DTM	1'26.458	1.074
14	34	Andrea Dovizioso	Audi RS5 DTM	1'26.703	1.319
15	76	Jake Dennis	Aston Martin Vantage DTM	1'26.831	1.447
16	23	Daniel Juncadella	Aston Martin Vantage DTM	1'27.009	1.625
17	3	Paul di Resta	Aston Martin Vantage DTM	1'27.198	1.814
18	62	Ferdinand Habsburg	Aston Martin Vantage DTM	1'27.325	1.941
View full results