Having scored his maiden podium since his switch to Audi on Saturday, Rast carried that form into qualifying for the second leg of the DTM’s blue riband event, setting a rapid time of 48.622s in Group A.
The German driver then had to spend the next 20 minutes in the Schubert garage as he waited for the second group of drivers to complete their laptimes, with the DTM having gone for a split-qualifying format at the Norisring due to the short length of the track.
While a number of Porsche drivers showed rapid pace in a session that was supposed to be theoretically faster, no one was able to usurp Rast’s lap, with the 36-year-old clinching his 24th career pole in the DTM by 0.151s.
The closest anyone came to beating Rast was Manthey EMA’s Thomas Prenining, the Porsche driver qualifying on the front row of the grid for a second race in succession after setting a best time of 48.773s.
Saturday winner and reigning champion Sheldon van der Linde finished right behind his team-mate Rast in the first qualifying group with a time that was only 0.018s down, which put him third on the grid ahead of the Bernhard Porsche duo Laurin Heinrich and Ayhancan Guven.
SSR Performance driver Mirko Bortolotti was once again Lamborghini’s best representative as he qualified sixth, beating the second Manthey EMA Porsche of Dennis Olsen.
HRT driver Luca Stolz led Mercedes’ charge in eighth, while Kelvin van der Linde was the best of the Audi runners in ninth. The top 10 was rounded out by SSR Lamborghini’s Franck Perera, the winner of the season opener bouncing back from two difficult qualifying sessions where he could finish no higher than 18th.
Two-time DTM champion Marco Wittmann was 11th in the Project 1 BMW, while Christian Engelhart qualified his Toksport WRT car 12th on the grid ahead of the top Grasser Racing Lamborghini of Clemens Schmid and Abt Audi of Ricardo Feller.
The Emil Frey Ferrari team again endured a woeful qualifying session, with Thierry Vermuelen and Jack Aitken ending up a distant 25th and 26th on the grid, only beating the SSR Lamborghini of Alessio Deledda in the 27-car field.
Group A results:
| Cla | Nº | Driver | Car / Engine | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 33 | René Rast | BMW | 48.662 | |
| 2 | 1 | S.van der Linde | BMW | 48.680 | 0.018 |
| 3 | 24 | Ayhancan Guven | Porsche | 48.727 | 0.065 |
| 4 | 90 | Dennis Olsen | Porsche | 48.815 | 0.153 |
| 5 | 3 | K.van der Linde | Audi | 48.882 | 0.220 |
| 6 | 11 | Marco Wittmann | BMW | 48.962 | 0.300 |
| 7 | 63 | Clemens Schmid | Lamborghini | 49.038 | 0.376 |
| 8 | 84 | Jusuf Owega | Mercedes | 49.084 | 0.422 |
| 9 | 36 | Arjun Maini | Mercedes | 49.097 | 0.435 |
| 10 | 9 | Tim Heinemann | Porsche | 49.189 | 0.527 |
| 11 | 27 | David Schumacher | Mercedes | 49.203 | 0.541 |
| 12 | 83 | P.Niederhauser | Audi | 49.442 | 0.780 |
| 13 | 69 | T.Vermeulen | Ferrari | 49.805 | 1.143 |
Group B results:
| Cla | Nº | Driver | Car / Engine | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 91 | Thomas Preining | Porsche | 48.773 | |
| 2 | 75 | Laurin Heinrich | Porsche | 48.869 | 0.096 |
| 3 | 92 | Mirko Bortolotti | Lamborghini | 48.876 | 0.103 |
| 4 | 4 | Luca Stolz | Mercedes | 48.911 | 0.138 |
| 5 | 94 | Franck Perera | Lamborghini | 48.915 | 0.142 |
| 6 | 99 | C.Engelhart | Porsche | 48.990 | 0.217 |
| 7 | 7 | Ricardo Feller | Audi | 49.017 | 0.244 |
| 8 | 22 | Lucas Auer | Mercedes | 49.019 | 0.246 |
| 9 | 48 | Maro Engel | Mercedes | 49.029 | 0.256 |
| 10 | 8 | Luca Engstler | Audi | 49.106 | 0.333 |
| 11 | 40 | Mattia Drudi | Audi | 49.130 | 0.357 |
| 12 | 19 | Mick Wishofer | Lamborghini | 49.150 | 0.377 |
| 13 | 14 | Jack Aitken | Ferrari | 49.464 | 0.691 |
| 14 | 6 | Alessio Deledda | Lamborghini | 49.758 | 0.985 |
