Rene Rast has bested his title rival Nico Müller in a close qualifying battle to take pole position for the penultimate race of the 2020 DTM season at Hockenheim.
Rast initially blew all of his competitors out of the water by posting a 01:28:434 early on in the session, opening up a gap of half a second. During the second set of runs, Müller improved significantly and posed a serious threat for Rast.
That was until the incumbent champion improved to a final time of 01:28:405, which allowed him to take pole position by 0.048s from Müller. The Swiss challenger posted a 01:28:453.
Jonathan Aberdein qualified third from BMW, nearly half a second back from the battling pair. He shares the second row of the grid with Jamie Green, while Sheldon van der Linde improved to fifth late on.
Philipp Eng was sixth, ahead of Loic Duval in seventh. The Frenchman returns to the seat of his Audi RS5 DTM after missing the previous round of Zolder in order to race for Mustang Sampling Racing at Petit Le Mans. Robin Frijns starts eighth, with Mike Rockenfeller and Fabio Scherer completing the top ten.
Robert Kubica qualified eleventh ahead of Ferdinand Habsburg. The grid order was completed by Timo Glock, Marco Wittmann, Harrison Newey and Lucas Auer.
