Qualifying report
DTM Lausitzring
Lausitzring DTM: Van der Linde brothers lock out front row
Sheldon van der Linde put BMW on pole position for the first of the two DTM races at the Lausitzring, beating his elder brother Kelvin by just 0.027s.
Rachit Thukral
Edited: Jul 24, 2021, 11:25 AM
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Laptimes improved significantly over the course of the 20-minute session, with Kelvin van der Linde’s early benchmark of 1m31.371s in the Abt Sportsline Audi beaten by nearly the entire field.
HRT driver Vincent Abril, who was excluded from the Monza weekend over a fuel infringement, was the first to break the 1m31s barrier, setting the fastest time of the weekend with a 1m30.874s.
But then Red Bull junior Liam Lawson found even more time in the AF Corse-run Ferrari, ending the first runs on top with a 1m30.817s.
As the drivers returned to the track in the final five minutes, 2013 champion Mike Rockenfeller was the first to eclipse Lawson in the second of three Abt-run Audis, before Kelvin van der Linde improved to a 1m30.726s to make it an Audi 1-2 at the top of the timesheets.
Both van der Linde and Rockenfeller improved on their final flyers, reversing their positions at the top of the order, with Esteban Muth going third in the T3 Motorsport.
However, there was a late surprise when Rowe Racing’s Sheldon van der Linde went quickest with a last-gasp attempt of 1m30.537s, edging his brother by just 0.027s to claim his second pole position in the series.
Rockenfeller slipped to third in the final classification, 0.137s off the pace, with Muth the best of the Lamborghini runners in fourth.
Lawson managed to gain a tenth over his previous time on his last lap but that was only good for fifth on the grid, 0.207s behind van der Linde's chart-topping time.
FP1 pacesetter Arjun Maini was the top Mercedes driver in sixth in the GetSpeed-run AMG GT3, beating the second Red Bull-backed Ferrari of Alex Albon.
Timo Glock finished eighth after Rowe Racing elected to replace the drive-by-wire system on his car in favour of a conventional steering due to a faulty sensor.
Mercedes drivers occupied the next five spots on the grid, led by Winward driver Philip Ellis and Mucke Motorsport’s Maximilian Buhk, the latter subbing for the absent Gary Paffett for the second race weekend in a row.
Last year’s runner-up Nico Muller was surprisingly off the pace in the Team Rosberg Audi, finishing over seven tenths down on the polesitter in 16th, only ahead of Sophia Floersch, Esmee Hawkey and Dev Gore.
Qualifying results:
Cla # Driver Car Time Gap 1 31 Sheldon Van Der Linde
BMW M6 GT3 1'30.537 2 3 Kelvin van der Linde
Audi R8 LMS Evo 1'30.564 0.027 3 9 Mike Rockenfeller
Audi R8 LMS Evo 1'30.674 0.137 4 10 Esteban Muth
Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 1'30.710 0.173 5 30 Liam Lawson
Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 1'30.744 0.207 6 36 Arjun Maini
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 1'30.756 0.219 7 23 Alex Albon
Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 1'30.860 0.323 8 16 Timo Glock
BMW M6 GT3 1'30.869 0.332 9 57 Philip Ellis
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 1'30.874 0.337 10 18 Maximilian Buhk
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 1'30.897 0.360 11 22 Lucas Auer
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 1'30.940 0.403 12 5 Vincent Abril
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 1'31.008 0.471 13 8 Daniel Juncadella
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 1'31.041 0.504 14 11 Marco Wittmann
BMW M6 GT3 1'31.052 0.515 15 4 Maximilian Götz
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 1'31.097 0.560 16 51 Nico Müller
Audi R8 LMS Evo 1'31.254 0.717 17 99 Sophia Flörsch
Audi R8 LMS Evo 1'31.314 0.777 18 26 Esmee Hawkey
Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 1'31.408 0.871 19 12 Dev Gore
Audi R8 LMS Evo 1'31.786 1.249 View full results
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