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Qualifying report

Nurburgring DTM: Rast denies Paffett pole by 0.028s

Defending DTM champion Rene Rast stole a last-gasp pole position from title contender Gary Paffett for the opening race at the Nurburgring.

René Rast, Audi Sport Team Rosberg, Audi RS 5 DTM

René Rast, Audi Sport Team Rosberg, Audi RS 5 DTM

Andreas Beil

Rast's first pole in 2018 - only Audi's second during a difficult campaign - came after the chequered flag had flown, quickly setting the fastest first sector of anyone before losing minimal time to beat Paffett by 0.028s with his lap of 1m22.203s.

Paffett had initially set the quickest lap in the final minute with a lap completed in 1m22.231s.

While Mercedes has dominated most of the DTM season and has usually had the edge at the Nurburgring, it filled just two of top five positions.

BMW's Bruno Spengler qualified in third ahead of Lucas Auer's Mercedes, with two-time champion Marco Wittmann fifth in his BMW.

Phillip Eng qualified sixth, having held provisional pole earlier in the session ahead of Dani Juncadella.

Points leader Paul di Resta could only qualify eighth after progressively sliding down the times.

Pascal Wehrlein was ninth ahead of BMW's Augusto Farfus.

BMW's Timo Glock has largely fallen out of the title race and qualified 12th behind the Audi of Mike Rockenfeller.

Rast continued to be the leading Audi driver as several others floundered, as Jamie Green ended up 14th ahead of Mercedes's Edoardo Mortara.

Loic Duval ran wide and spat gravel onto the track early in the session and qualified 18th and last, with teammates Robin Frijns and Nico Muller ending up 16th and 17th ahead of him.

Session results

Cla # Driver Car Laps Time Gap
1 33 Germany René Rast Audi RS5 DTM 13 1'22.203  
2 2 United Kingdom Gary Paffett Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM 12 1'22.231 0.028
3 7 Canada Bruno Spengler BMW M4 DTM 11 1'22.281 0.078
4 22 Austria Lucas Auer Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM 12 1'22.337 0.134
5 11 Germany Marco Wittmann BMW M4 DTM 12 1'22.350 0.147
6 25 Austria Philipp Eng BMW M4 DTM 12 1'22.390 0.187
7 23 Spain Daniel Juncadella Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM 12 1'22.448 0.245
8 3 United Kingdom Paul di Resta Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM 12 1'22.530 0.327
9 94 Germany Pascal Wehrlein Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM 12 1'22.557 0.354
10 15 Brazil Augusto Farfus BMW M4 DTM 13 1'22.570 0.367
11 99 Germany Mike Rockenfeller Audi RS5 DTM 12 1'22.585 0.382
12 16 Germany Timo Glock BMW M4 DTM 12 1'22.604 0.401
13 47 Sweden Joel Eriksson BMW M4 DTM 12 1'22.639 0.436
14 53 United Kingdom Jamie Green Audi RS5 DTM 12 1'22.677 0.474
15 48 Italy Edoardo Mortara Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM 12 1'22.913 0.710
16 51 Switzerland Nico Müller Audi RS5 DTM 13 1'22.918 0.715
17 4 Netherlands Robin Frijns Audi RS5 DTM 12 1'23.025 0.822
18 28 France Loic Duval Audi RS5 DTM 12 1'23.180 0.977

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