DTM Zolder: Wittmann takes race one pole from Rast as BMW dominates

Wittmann set his best time of 1m21.307s during his first run, deposing Audi's Rene Rast from the early top spit, and underlining BMW's one-lap advantage over its rival manufacturer.

The field then waited until the final minutes to make their second runs, but traffic building up on the narrow circuit prevented most from making improvements at a track where starting position could prove to be crucial.

That meant the front row of the grid for race one was sealed, with Rast setting a personal best time of 1m21.349s in second, and Bruno Spengler taking third with a last lap improvement.

DTM rookie Sheldon van der Linde took fourth ahead of Audi's Robin Frijns to make it three BMWs inside the top five.

Timo Glock was also able to post an improvement on his second run to jump to sixth ahead of Philipp Eng.

Nico Muller, Joel Eriksson and Jamie Green rounded out the top 10, which means BMW has an advantage of six cars on the first five rows.

The customer WRT Audi squad had its drivers finish 11th and 12th, with Pietro Fittipaldi winning the intra-team battle against Jonathan Aberdein.

Jake Dennis posted a late improvement to lead the R-Motorsport Aston Martin contingent with a time good enough for 13th on the grid, demoting Loic Duval to 14th.

Dennis's time was just over a second off Wittmann's leading time. Dani Juncadella was 15th ahead of Mike Rockenfeller, who took to the radio to tell Audi he had a clutch problem.

When he pitted ahead of his second run, he was reported to the stewards for spinning his wheels on the airjack.

Paul di Resta was 17th after having a moment at Turn 9 during his first run, locking-up and cutting the chicane. The final Aston of Ferdinand Habsburg was 18th.

Qualifying results