Audi Sport Team Phoenix’s Mike Rockenfeller set the fastest time in an extremely wet qualifying for the final round of the DTM season at Hockenheim, with a lap of 1 minute 50.800 seconds. However the 2013 series champion holds a five place grid penalty as a result of tallying too many incidents across the season, so Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline’s Nico Müller inherits pole.
Unlike Saturday’s qualifying, the 20 minute session would stay heavily wet throughout as rain continued to fall, and intensified as the session played out.
Audi Sport Team Robserg’s René Rast set the first competitive time at 1 minute 58.072 seconds, but as the drivers improved their understanding of the
The newly crowned 2019 DTM champion was lucky to escape without incident after running wide at the Mercedes Arena.
Times continued to improve and five drivers shared pole before Müller began to set the pace, lowering the bar on several times before setting a 1 minute 50.813 second lap with two minutes to spare.
This lap would be the eventual pole time, as the penalty carrying Rockenfeller was the only driver to better that time with seconds remaining.
Müller will start this afternoon’s race from the pole, alongside BMW Team RMR’s Timo Glock who was over four tenths slower than the Audi driver.
Audi Sport Team Rosberg’s Jamie Green will head the second row after improving in the final moments to a 1 minute 51.391 second time, the British driver will be joined by BMW Team RBM’s Joel Eriksson who was briefly second fastest before dropping to fourth with a 1 minute 51.489 second lap.
BMW Team RMG’s Marco Wittmann will line up in fifth, the two-time series champion’s time of 1 minute 51.788 seconds puts him on the third row and will start alongside the penalised Rockenfeller who drops to sixth.
BMW Team RMR’s Philipp Eng will start this afternoon’s race from seventh, thanks to a 1 minute 51.807 second lap, alongside Rast in eighth who was the first driver over a second slower than pole.
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline’s Robin Frijns was ninth fastest, and the Dutch driver escaped without harm after a spin at the Mercedes Arena, as Audi Sport Team Phoenix’s Loïc Duval rounds out the top ten some 1.181 seconds slower than Müller.
British driver Jake Dennis was the fastest of the R-Motorsports Aston Martins, and was the fastest driver in the 1 minute 52’s with a time of 1 minute 52.242 seconds.
Nick Cassidy in the Team Tom’s Lexus was the fastest of the SuperGT competitors, and will start this afternoon’s race from 16th thanks to a 1 minute 52.527 second lap.
The other two SuperGT cars of Honda Team Kunimitsu’s Jenson Button and Nissan Nismo’s Ronni Quintarelli will line up 19th and 21st respectively.
Qualifying result
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 99 | Mike ROCKENFELLER |  |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 12 | 1:50.800 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 51 | Nico MÜLLER |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 11 | 1:50.813 | 0.013 |
| 3 | 16 | Timo GLOCK | |
BMW Team RMR | BMW M4 DTM | 10 | 1:51.260 | 0.460 |
| 4 | 53 | Jamie GREEN |  |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 11 | 1:51.391 | 0.591 |
| 5 | 47 | Joel ERIKSSON |  |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 10 | 1:51.489 | 0.689 |
| 6 | 11 | Marco WITTMANN | |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 11 | 1:51.788 | 0.988 |
| 7 | 25 | Philipp ENG |  |
BMW Team RMR | BMW M4 DTM | 11 | 1:51.807 | 1.007 |
| 8 | 33 | René RAST | |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 11 | 1:51.873 | 1.073 |
| 9 | 4 | Robin FRIJNS |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 11 | 1:51.990 | 1.190 |
| 10 | 28 | Loïc DUVAL |  |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 11 | 1:51.994 | 1.194 |
| 11 | 76 | Jake DENNIS | |
R-Motorsport | Aston Martin Vantage DTM | 12 | 1:52.242 | 1.442 |
| 12 | 62 | Ferdinand VON HABSBURG | |
R-Motorsport | Aston Martin Vantage DTM | 12 | 1:52.374 | 1.574 |
| 13 | 27 | Jonathan ABERDEIN |  |
Audi Sport Team WRT | Audi RS5 DTM | 11 | 1:52.483 | 1.683 |
| 14 | 7 | Bruno SPENGLER |  |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 11 | 1:52.491 | 1.691 |
| 15 | 31 | Sheldon VAN DER LINDE | |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 11 | 1:52.511 | 1.711 |
| 16 | 37 | Nick CASSIDY |  |
Lexus Team KeePer TOM’S | Lexus LC 500 GT500 | 11 | 1:52.527 | 1.727 |
| 17 | 3 | Paul DI RESTA | |
R-Motorsport | Aston Martin Vantage DTM | 12 | 1:52.534 | 1.734 |
| 18 | 23 | Daniel JUNCADELLA |  |
R-Motorsport | Aston Martin Vantage DTM | 12 | 1:52.652 | 1.852 |
| 19 | 1 | Jenson BUTTON | |
Team Kunimitsu | Honda NSX-GT GT500 | 11 | 1:52.787 | 1.987 |
| 20 | 21 | Pietro FITTIPALDI |  |
Audi Sport Team WRT | Audi RS5 DTM | 11 | 1:53.410 | 2.610 |
| 21 | 35 | Ronnie QUINTARELLI |  |
Nismo | Nissan GT-R Nismo GT500 | 11 | 1:53.875 | 3.075 |