DTM Hockenheim: Auer takes crucial pole for penultimate race

Having arrived at the former Formula 1 venue trailing BMW’s Sheldon van der Linde by 11 points, Auer closed the gap to the South African to just eight points with the fastest time in the penultimate qualifying of the season on Saturday morning.

The Winward driver was third after the opening runs in the 20-minute sessions, trailing Mercedes stablemate Maro Engel and fellow title contender Mirko Bortolotti with a time of 1m36.745s.

But the Austrian found a heap of time on his second run with just minutes left on the clock, sealing pole by just 0.061s over HRT Mercedes driver Luca Stolz with 1m36.479s effort on his final flier.

Stolz securing a spot on the front row means he remains in contention for the title, while Lamborghini’s Bortolotti also gained an extra point by qualifying his Grasser Racing entry in third to boost his hopes of winning the championship in his rookie season.

Auer and Bortolotti’s title rivals qualified further down the top 10, with points leader van der Linde only managing the sixth-quickest time in his Schubert BMW - two tenths down on Auer’s pace-setting lap - but he will now take the start from 16th on the grid.

Schubert BMW was found to have broken a regulation that prevents teams from mounting tyres on the car between an hour and five minutes before the start of qualifying.

The outfit has a right to appeal the decision but it is unclear if it will pursue with the option available to it as per Article 15.1.5 of the FIA International Sporting Code and DTM regulations.

Team Bernhard Porsche’s Thomas Preining was only eighth but received a penalty for the same issue and starts 17th, with Rast the last of the lead title contenders starting eighth aboard the Abt Audi. 

Auer (centre) nailed pole for race one ahead of Stolz (left) and Bortolotti

Photo by: Alexander Trienitz

Following the end of qualifying, van der Linde continues to lead the standings on 130 points, ahead of Auer (122), Rast (118), Preining (116) and Bortolotti (115). The quintet is now separated by just 15 points with 55 still up for grabs this weekend.

Elsewhere, Walkenhorst BMW driver Marco Wittmann posted a rapid lap in the dying minutes of qualifying to end up fourth behind Bortolotti, with Austria polesitter Engel ending up fifth in his GruppeM Mercedes.

Kelvin van der Linde moves up to sixth aboard the lead Abt Audi after his brother's penalty, two places ahead of team-mate Rast, while the top eight was rounded out by Team Rosberg’s Nico Muller in his last race weekend as an Audi driver.

None of the Ferraris featured inside the top 10, with Nick Cassidy the lead Red Bull driver in 15th and Felipe Fraga further down in 19th.

However, it was a tightly-contested qualifying session, with all 27 cars separated by just 1.2s, with Cassidy himself only half a second off the pace of the front row.

SSR's Dennis Olsen was hit with the same penalty as Sheldon van der Linde and Preining, and thus starts from last.

DTM Hockenheim Race 1 Grid

Cla	Driver	Car	Time	Gap
1	Lucas Auer	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	1'36.479
2	Luca Stolz	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	1'36.540	0.061
3	Mirko Bortolotti	Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo	1'36.627	0.148
4	Marco Wittmann	BMW M4 GT3	1'36.637	0.158
5	Maro Engel	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	1'36.651	0.172
6	Sheldon Van Der Linde	BMW M4 GT3	1'36.708	0.229
7	Kelvin van der Linde	Audi R8 LMS Evo II	1'36.759	0.280
8	Thomas Preining	Porsche 911 GT3 R	1'36.762	0.283
9	René Rast	Audi R8 LMS Evo II	1'36.842	0.363
10	Nico Müller	Audi R8 LMS Evo II	1'36.859	0.380
11	Clemens Schmid	Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo	1'36.880	0.401
12	Maximilian Buhk	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	1'36.891	0.412
13	Philipp Eng	BMW M4 GT3	1'36.966	0.487
14	Arjun Maini	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	1'36.970	0.491
15	Rolf Ineichen	Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo	1'36.979	0.500
16	David Schumacher	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	1'37.009	0.530
17	Nick Cassidy	Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020	1'37.010	0.531
18	Dev Gore	Audi R8 LMS Evo II	1'37.016	0.537
19	Felipe Fraga	Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020	1'37.037	0.558
20	Dennis Olsen	Porsche 911 GT3 R	1'37.135	0.656
21	Christian Engelhart	Porsche 911 GT3 R	1'37.158	0.679
22	Ricardo Feller	Audi R8 LMS Evo II	1'37.179	0.700
23	Leon Köhler	BMW M4 GT3	1'37.268	0.789
24	Mikael Grenier	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	1'37.291	0.812
25	Maximilian Götz	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	1'37.294	0.815
26	Marius Zug	Audi R8 LMS Evo II	1'37.382	0.903
27	Alessio Deledda	Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo	1'37.667	1.188
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