Wittmann secures final DTM pole of 2018

Two-time DTM champion Marco Wittmann will start the final race of the 2018 season from pole position after beating title contender Rene Rast in qualifying at the Hockenheimring.

The BMW driver endured a miserable Saturday at Hockenheim after an FP3 crash forced him out of qualifying, before registering a 16th place finish in race one.

However, Wittmann hit back in triumphant fashion after sending his BMW M4 to the top of the timesheets ahead of Audi's Rast during the final 20-minute shootout of the year.

Looking to gain further ground in the title race, it was Rast who led the way following the first set of runs. And while the Audi driver was able to slightly improve on his initial run with a 1 minute 32.737s lap, Wittmann went even faster after setting a 1 minute 32.683s lap during the final minute.

Crucially, Rast still managed to out-qualify championship leader Gary Paffett to gain another point on his title rival after the Mercedes driver qualified in third.

Unlike Rast and Paffett, fellow title candidate Paul di Resta was unable to qualify in the top-ten and will start race two from eleventh. Di Resta still sits second in the drivers' standings with just 14-points covering the top-three runners.

Starting from third, Paffett just needs to shadow Rast in order to clinch his second in the series, 13-years after his first.

Paffett is joined on the second row with BMW's Bruno Spengler, while Augusto Farfus completed the top-five order ahead of Edoardo Mortara in sixth.

Joel Eriksson and Philipp Eng comprise an all BMW fourth row in seventh and eighth, as Nico Muller and Timo Glock complete the top-ten grid order in ninth and tenth.