René Rast took pole position for the final race of the 2022 DTM Championship after the session was red flagged with minutes to go. The result puts the two main title challengers down the field with championship leader, Sheldon Van Der Linde, starting in P5 and second placed man, Lucas Auer down in P11.

DTM HOCKENHEIMRING: QUALIFYING ONE REPORT | RACE ONE | QUALIFYING 2 REPORT

Following yesterday’s race the depleted field appeared to have taken a collective sensible pill and the first half of the session was fairly relaxed with no one really setting the times alive. By the halfway point the #66 Attempto Racing Audi of Marius Zug held the top spot with the #85 GRT grasser-racing.com Lamborghini of Clemens Schmid in P2 and Marco Wittmann’s #11 Walkenhorst BMW following in P3. Championship leader Sheldon Van Der Linde was in P5 with his closest challenger, Lucas Auer down in P11.

The relaxed approach to qualifying continued well into the second half with Zug holding onto pole position to within 3 minutes of the end of the session at which point some of the drivers started to put their fastest sectors in. Felipe Fraga in the #74 Red Bull Alpha Tauri AF Corse Ferrari was the first to cross the line and jumped to the top of the standings. As the purple sectors started to stack up on the timing screen René Rast in the #33 Team ABT Audi followed Fraga across the line to take P2 just as Fraga jumped across the kerbs at turn 1 and lost control of his Ferrari. Unable to recover the car he ended the session firmly in the barriers with an immediate red flag called by the race director.

 

With insufficient time remaining on the clock the session was ended with the positions mostly set. Having caused the red flag, Fraga lost his fastest lap which dumped him to P15 and promoted Rast to P1. The result also gives Rast an extra 3 points which puts him 18 points behind Van Der Linde in the championship.

The DTM finale take place at 13:30 CET this afternoon.

 
 

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