Rene Rast has claimed pole position for the Sunday DTM race at TT Circuit Assen. The German was quickest with a time of 01:24:849. Rast's rival and Saturday winner Marco Wittmann suffered from mechanical issues during the session and will be starting from the back of the grid.
Wittmann's BMW M4 DTM lost drive during the first flying laps and the two-time DTM champion inadvertedly blocked Rast in the process when he was unable to accelerate out of the final chicane, provoking an angry reaction from his rival, who was on a flying lap.
Rast was able to improve during his second set of laps, which has been uncommon in a season where most pole laps get set in the first outing of a session.
Rast's 01:24:849 was one of two times below 01:25s, with Team WRT's Jonathan Aberdein qualifying second with a time of 01:24:981, putting the South African rookie just 0.132s behind Rast. Mike Rockenfeller was third with a time of 01:25:017, just 0.001s quicker than Nico Müller in fourth.
Robin Frijs held provisional pole after the first set of qualifying laps, but suffered an issue during his second outing, rendering him unable to improve his laptime. As a result, his 01:25:102 landed him fifth. He is joined on the third row by rookie Sheldon van der Linde. The top ten is completed by Loic Duval, Philipp Eng, Timo Glock and Pietro Fittipaldi.
BMW's mechanics were able to send Wittmann out again, but the German was unable to complete his out lap before the session came to an end. Wittmann's fastest time was a 01:55:532, 30 seconds behind the pole time.
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