René Rast claims his first career pole in the DTM at the Hungaroring

Audi Sport driver René Rast made the most of the final minutes of the qualifying session at the Hungaroring to take the first pole position of his DTM career, leading an all-Audi top five.

The session started with drivers completing a first slow lap to bring the tyres and pressures to temperature, with Mercedes’ Paul Di Resta set the first target time, but the Scot was quickly beaten by Audi drivers Jamie Green and Nico Müller, with the Briton from Team Rosberg smashing last year’s pole with a time of 1:34.818.

Fellow Audi drivers Mattias Ekström and Loic Duval followed, with Augusto Farfus being the first of the BMWs in sixth and Paul Di Resta the best-placed Mercedes in seventh.

Silence fell over the Hungaroring at the half-session mark, with all drivers returning to the pits before one last effort for the pole position.

Mercedes’ drivers Gary Paffett and Maro Engel were investigated for allegedly blocking Audi’s Nico Müller and BMW’s Maxime Martin, with no further action taken against neither of them. Duval, Engel and Mercedes AMG’s Edoardo Mortara had laps deleted for exceeding the track limits.

The entire field went back on track with five minutes to go. René Rast then set a time of 1:34.742 to take his first DTM career pole, beating Rosberg team-mate Jamie Green by 0.076 seconds.

Audi drivers Mattias Ekström, Nico Müller and Mike Rockenfeller followed. BMW’s Augusto Farfus improved in the final minutes to climb to sixth place, half a second off the pace, followed by Audi’s Loïc Duval, who had his best qualifying of the year in seventh.

Mercedes drivers Lucas Auer and Gary Paffett were also able to improve in the final moments of the session to finish eighth and ninth, with the Briton seven-tenths off Rast’s pole time. BMW’s Tom Blomqvist completed the top ten.

Qualifying was dismal for reigning champion Marco Wittmann, who was only 15th in his BMW, with Mercedes’ Edoardo Mortara right behind, with the Italian struggling to find grip in his C63 DTM.

When the session finished, Jamie Green was reported to the stewards for crossing the line and taking the chequered flag twice.

The start of Race 1 is scheduled for 14:48 CET.