Rast claims record 26th DTM pole at Zandvoort

René Rast produced a dominant display in qualifying for Sunday's second of two weekend DTM races at Circuit Zandvoort. The BMW works driver was the fastest racer in the dunes on Friday afternoon, ending the session with a top time of 1m32.750s and an advantage of almost 0.3s. Rast will now start from pole position for the 26th time when Sunday's race gets underway – a new DTM record. Qualifying for the first race will be held Saturday morning.

"We were already very competitive in the practice sessions, and then everything came together perfectly in qualifying," said Rast. "Pole position is confirmation of our good start to the season. The new Evo package makes the car even easier to drive and also simplifies the setup configurations for us. Only when the team approached me celebrating did I realize that I had set a new pole record in the DTM!"

Starting behind Rast will be last year's two winners in Zandvoort: Jack Aitken and Marco Wittmann. The Briton, at the wheel of a Ferrari 296 GT3, was 0.275s slower in second place.

"I am super happy with my flying lap and second place on the grid. The two BMW are very fast on the straights. As such, we must come up with a good strategy for the race," said Aitken.

When Wittmann starts his 200th DTM race on Sunday, he will do so from third place in the second Schubert Motorsport BMW. Frenchman Jules Gounon was the best-placed Mercedes-AMG driver in fourth. Thomas Preining landed his Porsche 911 GT3 R on fifth place on the grid. Championship leader Lucas Auer was 11th in the Mercedes-AMG GT3.

Shortly before the start of qualifying, it began to rain lightly. Despite this, the drivers still took to the 2.65-mile track on the Pirelli slicks. This proved to be the correct decision, as the anticipated rain did not materialize and the DTM drivers completed their race against the clock in dry conditions. As is so often the case, the battle for pole position was decided in the final few minutes: Wittmann initially set the fastest time, before Aitken countered to move to the top of the timing sheet. Not long after that, Rast produced his top lap to secure his record-breaking pole position.

Race six of the season starts at 4:30pm local time on Sunday. Qualifying for race five takes place at 9:50am on Saturday with the race at 1:30pm.

Watch both races live on the RACER Network with coverage starting at 7:15am ET Saturday and 10:15am ET on Sunday. For the full schedule of live racing on RACER Network and the RACER+ App, CLICK HERE.