Marco Wittmann took his seventh Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters career pole position at Moscow Raceway for the feature race this afternoon (Sunday, August 21st), leading a BMW 1-2-3 ahead of Team RBM’s Tom Blomqvist and Maxime Martin.
Martin was leading the charge towards pole position after bettering his initial benchmark twice by a total of 0.370 seconds, before the rear end of his M4 DTM stepped out at turn seven with just eight minutes remaining.
After slightly touching the kerb, the Belgian found himself bouncing across the gravel before hitting the wall, which brought out the red flag. But both Wittmann and Blomqvist would set their times late in the restarted session, with the likes of Wickens unable to challenge the Munich pair.
Sprint race winner Wickens was the best of the Mercedes drivers in fourth, ahead of Team MTEK’s Bruno Spengler and fellow HWA stablemate Daniel Juncadella, who completed the top six.
Augusto Farfus was just 0.040 seconds off team mate Spengler in seventh, with Timo Glock making it a welcome six cars in the top ten for BMW, who were able to maximize the advantage they had through the performance weights system.
HWA’s Maximilian Götz will start from ninth on the grid, ahead of Mücke Motorsport’s Lucas Auer, as no single Audi was able to make it into the top ten. Nico Müller was the best of the Ingolstadt drivers all the way down in 13th, 0.992 seconds off the pace set by Wittmann.
Title contenders Jamie Green and Edoardo Mortara start the race from 18th and 20th respectively, as four former champions in the form of Mike Rockenfeller, Gary Paffett, Martin Tomczyk and Timo Scheider complete the final two rows of the starting grid for this afternoon’s race.
Race 12 of the 2016 DTM season gets underway at 13.13 local time (BST +2), lasting for 60 minutes plus one lap, along with a mandatory pitstop.
Session results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 11 | Marco WITTMANN |  |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 7 | 1:28.776 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 31 | Tom BLOMQVIST |  |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 11 | 1:28.878 | 0.102 |
| 3 | 36 | Maxime MARTIN |  |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 6 | 1:29.027 | 0.251 |
| 4 | 6 | Robert WICKENS |  |
SILBERPFEIL Energy/UBFS Invest Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 8 | 1:29.180 | 0.404 |
| 5 | 7 | Bruno SPENGLER | |
BMW Team MTEK | BMW M4 DTM | 10 | 1:29.371 | 0.595 |
| 6 | 12 | Daniel JUNCADELLA |  |
SILBERPFEIL Energy/UBFS Invest Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 7 | 1:29.397 | 0.621 |
| 7 | 18 | Augusto FARFUS |  |
BMW Team MTEK | BMW M4 DTM | 11 | 1:29.411 | 0.635 |
| 8 | 16 | Timo GLOCK | |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 8 | 1:29.522 | 0.746 |
| 9 | 84 | Maximilian GÖTZ | |
Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 6 | 1:29.604 | 0.828 |
| 10 | 22 | Lucas AUER |  |
BWT Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 9 | 1:29.650 | 0.874 |
| 11 | 13 | António Félix da COSTA |  |
BMW Team Schnitzer | BMW M4 DTM | 8 | 1:29.759 | 0.983 |
| 12 | 3 | Paul di RESTA | |
Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 9 | 1:29.760 | 0.984 |
| 13 | 51 | Nico MÜLLER |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt | Audi RS5 DTM | 8 | 1:29.768 | 0.992 |
| 14 | 88 | Felix ROSENQVIST |  |
EURONICS/FREE MEN’S WORLD Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 10 | 1:29.811 | 1.035 |
| 15 | 5 | Mattias EKSTRÖM | |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 12 | 1:29.812 | 1.036 |
| 16 | 17 | Miguel MOLINA | |
Audi Sport Team Abt | Audi RS5 DTM | 8 | 1:29.815 | 1.039 |
| 17 | 8 | Christian VIETORIS | |
BWT Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 9 | 1:29.935 | 1.159 |
| 18 | 48 | Edoardo MORTARA |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 12 | 1:29.987 | 1.211 |
| 19 | 27 | Adrien TAMBAY |  |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 6 | 1:30.057 | 1.281 |
| 20 | 53 | Jamie GREEN | |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 8 | 1:30.081 | 1.305 |
| 21 | 99 | Mike ROCKENFELLER | |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 12 | 1:30.114 | 1.338 |
| 22 | 2 | Gary PAFFETT | |
EURONICS/FREE MEN’S WORLD Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 13 | 1:30.122 | 1.346 |
| 23 | 100 | Martin TOMCZYK | |
BMW Team Schnitzer | BMW M4 DTM | 10 | 1:30.158 | 1.382 |
| 24 | 10 | Timo SCHEIDER | |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 11 | 1:30.424 | 1.648 |