Nurburgring DTM: Albon scores maiden pole in wet qualifying

Although both track conditions and visibility deteriorated in the final minutes due to a late burst of rain, Albon was able to improve to a 1m36.773s towards the end of the session to take the  top spot in the AF Corse-run Ferrari.

HRT Mercedes driver Maximilian Gotz led the majority of qualifying with his early effort of 1m37.130s on full wet tyres, with championship leader Kelvin van der Linde holding second in the Abt Sportsline Audi.

Toksport Mercedes’ guest driver Luca Stolz matched the time of Gotz in the second half of the session, before Juncadella became the first driver to depose the German from the top in the GruppeM Mercedes with a 1m36.958s.

Around this time, Albon was slowly moving up the timesheets, jumping from eighth to fourth before posting a 1m37.053s to capture second spot behind Juncadella.

The Anglo-Thai driver then found more time on his final flying lap, breaching the 1m37s barrier to score his and Ferrari’s first pole in the DTM, by two tenths of a second.

Juncadella held on to second with his previous effort, while Walkenhorst BMW driver Marco Wittmann leapt to third late on with an impressive time of 1m37.056s.

The two-time champion demoted the SSR Performance Porsche of Michael Ammermuller to the outside of the second row, with Gotz eventually ending up fifth after failing to improve on his previous time.

Van der Linde, who will carry 25kg of success ballast in the race, was Audi’s top qualifier in seventh behind Stolz, with ex-Formula 1 driver Christian Klien eighth in the JP Motorsport McLaren.

The top 10 was completed by the second Abt Audi of Mike Rockenfeller and T3 Lamborghini’s Esteban Muth.

Liam Lawson qualified 11th in the second AF Corse Ferrari, while Rowe Racing BMW’s Sheldon van der Linde could manage no better than 16th despite setting a purple time in the first sector.

Markus Winkelhock qualified down in 22nd in the third Abt Audi after an eventual qualifying session, where he ran off track multiple times in difficult weather conditions.

Qualifying results:

Cla	#	Driver	Car	Time	Gap
1	23	Alex Albon	Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020	1'36.773
2	8	Daniel Juncadella	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	1'36.958	0.185
3	11	Marco Wittmann	BMW M6 GT3	1'37.056	0.283
4	92	Michael Ammermüller	Porsche 911 GT3 R	1'37.122	0.349
5	4	Maximilian Götz	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	1'37.130	0.357
6	7	Luca Stolz	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	1'37.130	0.357
7	3	Kelvin van der Linde	Audi R8 LMS Evo	1'37.170	0.397
8	15	Christian Klien	McLaren 720S GT3	1'37.193	0.420
9	9	Mike Rockenfeller	Audi R8 LMS Evo	1'37.268	0.495
10	10	Esteban Muth	Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo	1'37.337	0.564
11	30	Liam Lawson	Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020	1'37.429	0.656
12	5	Vincent Abril	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	1'37.440	0.667
13	57	Philip Ellis	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	1'37.466	0.693
14	36	Arjun Maini	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	1'37.489	0.716
15	12	Christopher Haase	Audi R8 LMS Evo	1'37.606	0.833
16	31	Sheldon Van Der Linde	BMW M6 GT3	1'37.631	0.858
17	18	Maximilian Buhk	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	1'37.634	0.861
18	51	Nico Müller	Audi R8 LMS Evo	1'37.664	0.891
19	6	Hubert Haupt	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	1'37.923	1.150
20	16	Timo Glock	BMW M6 GT3	1'37.932	1.159
21	22	Lucas Auer	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	1'37.940	1.167
22	99	Markus Winkelhock	Audi R8 LMS Evo	1'37.988	1.215
23	26	Esmee Hawkey	Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo	1'38.041	1.268
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