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Rast seals pole for DTM Norisring finale in the final minute

Championship leader Rene Rast secured pole position for the second Norisring DTM race in a pulsating end to second qualifying

Rast, who won Saturday's opening race despite stalling from third on the grid, set a 46.146s lap time with 30 seconds left on the clock to head an Audi top-four lockout.

Most drivers had only set banker laps by the time the session was red flagged after five minutes when BMW driver Timo Glock stopped exiting the chicane.

That stoppage also prompted a split in strategies, as a handful of drivers opted to head out immediately when the session restarted following a five-minute delay while others held station in their garages.

Race one polesitter Nico Muller was one of those to head straight back on track, and immediately beat Loic Duval's early benchmark with a new best of 46.264s.

Jamie Green got closest to that initially, lapping just 0.060s slower, before Muller then found more time to extend his narrow advantage.

Green then went quicker still as the session approached its conclusion, setting a 46.153s that appeared to be good enough for pole - even when Muller matched that time.

But Rast struck late to secure his third pole position of 2019, beating Green's previous best by a mere seven thousandths.

Green was provisionally second ahead of Muller, but he, sixth-place qualifier Mike Rockenfeller and Jake Dennis were later relegated five places for not respecting the red-flag procedure.

Muller will therefore start second ahead of Duval, while Phillip Eng will be BMW's lead representative in fourth after qualifying just 0.046s away from pole.

A pair of BMWs were next up in the order; Bruno Spengler will start fifth ahead of Sheldon van der Linde, while Green slots in ahead of Marco Wittmann.

The customer WRT Audi of Jonathan Aberdein and Robin Frijns complete the top 10, with Rockenfeller 11th.

Daniel Juncadella was again fastest of the R-Motorsport Aston Martin Vantages, beating team-mate Paul di Resta to 13th by 0.033s.

Ferdinand Habsburg got his Vantage ahead of the second WRT Audi of Pietro Fittipaldi, while Glock - who was not able to register a representative time before he stopped - will start 17th ahead of Dennis.

Qualifying result

Pos Driver Team Car Gap Laps
1 Rene Rast Rosberg Audi 46.146s 16
2 Jamie Green Rosberg Audi 0.007s 21
3 Nico Muller Abt Audi 0.007s 20
4 Loic Duval Phoenix Audi 0.040s 15
5 Philipp Eng RMR BMW 0.046s 14
6 Mike Rockenfeller Phoenix Audi 0.111s 17
7 Bruno Spengler RMG BMW 0.227s 17
8 Sheldon van der Linde RBM BMW 0.344s 18
9 Marco Wittmann RMG BMW 0.368s 16
10 Jonathan Aberdein WRT Audi 0.418s 17
11 Robin Frijns Abt Audi 0.445s 16
12 Joel Eriksson RBM BMW 0.458s 15
13 Daniel Juncadella R-Motorsport Aston Martin 0.566s 17
14 Paul Di Resta R-Motorsport Aston Martin 0.599s 20
15 Ferdinand Habsburg R-Motorsport Aston Martin 0.604s 19
16 Pietro Fittipaldi WRT Audi 0.631s 18
17 Jake Dennis R-Motorsport Aston Martin 0.804s 20
18 Timo Glock RMR BMW 5.737s 5


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