DTM Portimao: Audi's Muller takes pole in second qualifying

Muller held the top spot for much of the 20-minute pole-shootout in Portugal, grabbing an early edge over his rivals with a time of 1m40.137s in his Audi R8 LMS GT3.

Red Bull driver Felipe Fraga briefly deposed Muller with a 1m40.001s as the second runs began, highlighting the one-lap pace of his AF Corse-run Ferrari 488 GT3 for the second day in succession. 

However, it took little time for Muller to regain the initiative, the factory Audi driver setting a blistering time of 1m39.974s on his next flying lap to secure his first pole in the DTM's GT3 era.

Bortolotti again opted to complete only a single run in qualifying and jumped to second late on, although the factory Lamborghini driver’s time was slower than his pole-setting lap from Saturday, leaving him two tenths behind Muller in the timesheets.

Brazilian racer Fraga was shuffled down to third in the final order, albeit just 0.010s behind Bortolotti, while Sheldon van der Linde finished another 0.001s adrift in fourth in his Schubert Motorsport BMW M4.

Saturday race winner Lucas Auer was Mercedes’ top qualifier in fifth, setting a time of 1m40.055s in his Winward AMG GT3 ahead of the similar machine of HRT driver Luca Stolz - who coincidentally finished second behind Auer in the opening race of the weekend.

Auer will carry 25kg of additional weight on his Mercedes in the race as part of the DTM’s updated success ballast rules, with Stolz and Bortolotti hobbled by 15kg and 5kg in extra weight respectively.

Mirko Bortolotti, Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracán EVO GT3

Photo by: Alexander Trienitz

Two-time DTM champion Marco Wittmann put on a much stronger performance in qualifying on Sunday, putting his Walkenhorst BMW seventh on the grid ahead of Abt Sportsline duo Kelvin van der Linde and Ricardo Feller.

The top 10 was rounded out by reigning champion Maximilian Gotz, who has switched to the Winward Mercedes team this year after winning the 2021 title with Hubert Haupt’s HRT outfit.

SSR Performance’s Laurens Vanthoor was the top Porsche driver on the grid in 11th in an ultra-competitive session where 15 out of 29 drivers were separated by just half a second, and the entire field apart from Alessio Deledda separated by two seconds.

After retiring from Saturday’s race due to contact at the restart, Abt Audi DTM star Rene Rast qualified 13th with a time of 1m40.283s, just fractionally ahead of the slowest Audi of Attempto driver Marius Zug.

Nicki Thiim, who qualified fifth on his DTM debut on Saturday, struggled for pace on Sunday and ended up a distant 20th on the grid in his T3 Motorsport Lamborghini.

Nine-time World Rally champion Sebastien Loeb was also unable to replicate his pace from Saturday and will line up 27th on the grid in his AlphaTauri-sponsored AF Corse Ferrari, only ahead of the Lamborghinis of Esmee Hawkey and Deledda.

DTM Portimao - Sunday qualifying results:

Cla	Driver	Car	Time	Gap
1	Nico Müller	Audi R8 LMS Evo II	1'39.794
2	Mirko Bortolotti	Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo	1'40.001	0.207
3	Felipe Fraga	Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020	1'40.011	0.217
4	Sheldon Van Der Linde	BMW M4 GT3	1'40.012	0.218
5	Lucas Auer	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	1'40.055	0.261
6	Luca Stolz	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	1'40.063	0.269
7	Marco Wittmann	BMW M4 GT3	1'40.107	0.313
8	Kelvin van der Linde	Audi R8 LMS Evo II	1'40.153	0.359
9	Ricardo Feller	Audi R8 LMS Evo II	1'40.154	0.360
10	Maximilian Götz	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	1'40.189	0.395
11	Laurens Vanthoor	Porsche 911 GT3 R	1'40.210	0.416
12	Dev Gore	Audi R8 LMS Evo II	1'40.236	0.442
13	René Rast	Audi R8 LMS Evo II	1'40.283	0.489
14	Marius Zug	Audi R8 LMS Evo II	1'40.285	0.491
15	Mikael Grenier	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	1'40.304	0.510
16	Dennis Olsen	Porsche 911 GT3 R	1'40.378	0.584
17	Esteban Muth	BMW M4 GT3	1'40.410	0.616
18	Maro Engel	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	1'40.471	0.677
19	Philipp Eng	BMW M4 GT3	1'40.537	0.743
20	Nicki Thiim	Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo	1'40.563	0.769
21	Thomas Preining	Porsche 911 GT3 R	1'40.580	0.786
22	Arjun Maini	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	1'40.597	0.803
23	Maximilian Buhk	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	1'40.622	0.828
24	David Schumacher	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	1'40.670	0.876
25	Clemens Schmid	Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo	1'40.947	1.153
26	Rolf Ineichen	Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo	1'40.959	1.165
27	Nick Cassidy	Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020	1'41.045	1.251
28	Esmee Hawkey	Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo	1'41.613	1.819
29	Alessio Deledda	Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo	1'42.208	2.414
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