DTM Lausitzring: Auer holds off charging van der Linde for pole
Winward Mercedes driver Lucas Auer took pole position for the opening DTM race at the Lausitzring, narrowly edging Sheldon van der Linde's Schubert BMW by 0.025s.
Auer, who won the opening round of the 2022 season in Portimao and has three DTM victories to his name at the east German track, posted the benchmark time of 1m30.654s in the opening half of the 20-minute session but couldn't improve his time further as others around him closed in.
Van der Linde, who had been 0.25s behind the Austrian at the halfway point in the session, produced two laps less than a tenth slower than Auer but had to settle for second on the grid as the only non-Mercedes driver in the top four.
The South African's late effort demoted Maro Engel to third, the GruppeM Mercedes driver 0.067s slower than stablemate Auer in an ultra-tight session, with Luca Stolz fourth in the leading HRT Mercedes.
Stolz however faces an investigation for crossing the white line at the pit exit.
Felipe Fraga had been third in the closing stages of the session before behind shuffled back to fifth in the Red Bull Ferrari, and will share row with Stolz's team-mate Arjun Maini.
Philipp Eng will line up seventh in the second Schubert BMW, ahead of reigning ADAC GT Masters champion Ricardo Feller in the leading Abt Audi entry.
Top 3 after Qualifying, Sheldon van der Linde, Schubert Motorsport, Pole sitter Lucas Auer, Mercedes-AMG Team WINWARD, Maro Engel, Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM Racing
Photo by: DTM
The Swiss set an identical laptime, 1m31.147s, to championship leader Mirko Bortolotti's Grasser Racing Lamborghini but will start ahead courtesy of posting his effort first.
Three-time DTM champion Rene Rast rounded out the top 10, 0.494s down on Auer.
The best Porsche was Dennis Olsen's SSR Performance example in 11th, as Nick Cassidy took 12th on his first appearance of the season in the second Red Bull Ferrari.
Portimao race two winner Nico Muller waited until the final eight minutes of the session to venture out of the pits for the first time, but couldn't repeat Bortolotti's successful adoption of the tactic in Portimao, and could only manage 14th in his Team Rosberg Audi - just behind defending champion Maxi Gotz's Winward Mercedes.
A similar strategy for David Schumacher in the third Winward Mercedes yielded the 17th-quickest time.
DTM Lausitzring - Saturday qualifying results:
| Cla | Driver | Car | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Lucas Auer |
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 1'30.654 | |
| 2 |  Sheldon Van Der Linde |
BMW M4 GT3 | 1'30.679 | 0.025 |
| 3 |  Maro Engel |
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 1'30.721 | 0.067 |
| 4 | Luca Stolz |
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 1'30.864 | 0.210 |
| 5 |  Felipe Fraga |
Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 | 1'30.971 | 0.317 |
| 6 |  Arjun Maini |
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 1'30.987 | 0.333 |
| 7 | Philipp Eng |
BMW M4 GT3 | 1'31.118 | 0.464 |
| 8 |  Ricardo Feller |
Audi R8 LMS Evo II | 1'31.147 | 0.493 |
| 9 |  Mirko Bortolotti |
Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo | 1'31.147 | 0.493 |
| 10 | René Rast |
Audi R8 LMS Evo II | 1'31.148 | 0.494 |
| 11 |  Dennis Olsen |
Porsche 911 GT3 R | 1'31.159 | 0.505 |
| 12 |  Nick Cassidy |
Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 | 1'31.172 | 0.518 |
| 13 | Maximilian Götz |
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 1'31.184 | 0.530 |
| 14 | Nico Müller |
Audi R8 LMS Evo II | 1'31.302 | 0.648 |
| 15 |  Mikael Grenier |
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 1'31.304 | 0.650 |
| 16 | Marco Wittmann |
BMW M4 GT3 | 1'31.397 | 0.743 |
| 17 | David Schumacher |
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 1'31.437 | 0.783 |
| 18 | Maximilian Buhk |
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 1'31.461 | 0.807 |
| 19 | Kelvin van der Linde |
Audi R8 LMS Evo II | 1'31.528 | 0.874 |
| 20 | Thomas Preining |
Porsche 911 GT3 R | 1'31.540 | 0.886 |
| 21 |  Esteban Muth |
BMW M4 GT3 | 1'31.575 | 0.921 |
| 22 | Laurens Vanthoor |
Porsche 911 GT3 R | 1'31.666 | 1.012 |
| 23 |  Nicki Thiim |
Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo | 1'31.799 | 1.145 |
| 24 |  Dev Gore |
Audi R8 LMS Evo II | 1'31.806 | 1.152 |
| 25 | Marius Zug |
Audi R8 LMS Evo II | 1'31.812 | 1.158 |
| 26 | Rolf Ineichen |
Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo | 1'32.220 | 1.566 |
| 27 | Clemens Schmid |
Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo | 1'32.483 | 1.829 |
| 28 |  Esmee Hawkey |
Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo | 1'33.252 | 2.598 |
| 29 | Alessio Deledda |
Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo | 1'34.366 | 3.712 |
| View full results | ||||
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