Moscow, Russia - Reigning DTM champion Marco Wittmann (DE) was unbeatable in qualifying for race 11 of the DTM season in Moscow (RU). The BMW Team RMG driver completed a flying lap of the 3.931-kilometre “Moscow Raceway” in a time of 1:28.810 seconds at the wheel of the Ice-Watch BMW M4 DTM, making him over a tenth of a second faster than his closest rivals. This was the fifth pole position of Wittmann’s DTM career, and the 47th time that BMW will start from the very front of the grid in the DTM.

Wittmann was joined in the top ten by a further three BMW DTM drivers. Timo Glock (DE) clocked the fourth fastest time in the DEUTSCHE POST BMW M4 DTM to achieve his best qualifying result of the season. Rookie Tom Blomqvist (GB) enjoyed the highest finish of his DTM career so far, qualifying fifth in his BMW M4 DTM. Bruno Spengler (CA) was seventh fastest in the BMW Bank M4 DTM.

Last year’s winner Maxime Martin (BE, SAMSUNG BMW M4 DTM) had to settle for 16th place, ahead of António Félix da Costa (PT, Red Bull BMW M4 DTM). Augusto Farfus (BR, Shell BMW M4 DTM) and Martin Tomczyk (DE, BMW M Performance Parts M4 DTM) will start from 21st and 23rd.

Quote from the best-placed BMW driver:

“It was fantastic. I felt good on the first run but made the odd mistake here and there. Because of this, I knew I could go even faster with the second set of tyres, and that was the case. We made a slight change to the tyre pressure for the second set, which proved to be the right step. The lap was perfect. I felt very comfortable. It is great to be at the very front and make a good start to the weekend. Pole position is obviously the best possible start.” – Marco Wittmann (BMW Team RMG, 1st)

Facts and Figures

Circuit/length:
Moscow Raceway, 3.931 kilometres
Conditions:
Cloudy, 20 degrees Celsius
Pole time:
Marco Wittmann (DE, BMW Team RMG), 1:28.810 minutes

BMW Motorsport results*:

#1 Marco Wittmann (DE), BMW Team RMG, Ice-Watch BMW M4 DTM
1:28.810 minutes – 1st
#16 Timo Glock (DE), BMW Team MTEK, DEUTSCHE POST BMW M4 DTM
1:29.003 minutes – 4th
#31 Tom Blomqvist (GB), BMW Team RBM, BMW M4 DTM
1:29.066 minutes – 5th
#7 Bruno Spengler (CA), BMW Team MTEK, BMW Bank M4 DTM
1:29.093 minutes – 7th
#36 Maxime Martin (BE), BMW Team RMG, SAMSUNG BMW M4 DTM
1:29.304 minutes – 16th
#13 António Félix da Costa (PT), BMW Team Schnitzer, Red Bull BMW M4 DTM
1:29.350 minutes – 17th
#18 Augusto Farfus (BR), BMW Team RBM, Shell BMW M4 DTM
1:29.541 minutes – 21st
#77 Martin Tomczyk (DE), BMW Team Schnitzer, BMW M Performance Parts M4 DTM
1:29.766 minutes – 23rd

*The official starting grid may differ from the provisional qualifying results published in this release.

Useful information:

Marco Wittmann starts from pole position for the first time this season. The last time he was the fastest man in qualifying was at the Nürburgring in 2014. Back then, he went on to win the race.

Rookie Tom Blomqvist went fifth fastest to claim the best qualifying result of his DTM career so far.

Fourth place for Timo Glock was his best qualifying result since the 2014 race in Spielberg.

Although the track was still wet during the second free practice, it had completely dried out by the start of qualifying. Therefore, all the cars were able to start on slicks.

The 11th of this year’s 18 DTM races begins at 16:30 hrs local time.

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Canadians In BOLD