Norisring DTM: Lawson beats van der Linde to Saturday pole
Red Bull protege Liam Lawson claimed a crucial pole position in the penultimate qualifying of the 2021 DTM season at the Norisring, beating his title rival Kelvin van der Linde.
The result means AF Corse driver Lawson will head to Saturday’s opening race with a 15-point advantage over the Abt Sportsline Audi of van der Linde, albeit with 18kg of ballast on his Ferrari.
The laptimes tumbled rapidly around the short 2.6km circuit in Nuremberg as the session progressed, helped by drivers being able to complete multiple flying laps on a single set of tyres.
Van der Linde was the first driver to break the 50s barrier in qualifying with a time of 49.647s, before improving further to a 49.255s, setting the fastest lap of the weekend in the process.
But the South African’s position at the top of the timesheets proved to be short-lived as Lawson began setting a series of quick times, moving the goalposts with a 48.966s flyer.
The next driver to go on top was GetSpeed Mercedes’ Arjun Maini, edging out Lawson by just 0.021s to claim provisional pole after the first runs.
When the drivers returned on track in the final five minutes of the session, Lawson wasted little time to snatch the top spot back from Maini, setting a time of 48.903s on his first flying lap.
The Kiwi then moved himself out of reach of his opponents with a 48.766s, before finding yet more time on his final flyer to seal his third pole position of the season.
Lawson’s title rival van der Linde did improve to second with a last-gasp effort of his own, but ended up a sizeable 0.184s adrift of the Red Bull junior’s best time of 48.720s.
Winward driver Lucas Auer led a train of Mercedes cars in third, a further 0.027s adrift of the front-row, as Maini finished fourth after failing to improve his previous benchmark in his final run.
HRT’s Maximilian Gotz, who is still in contention for the title, was classified fifth with a time of 48.960s, beating fellow Mercedes runners Philip Ellis (Winward) and Daniel Juncadella (GruppeM).
Contesting his first DTM race of the season as a replacement for Alex Albon, Super Formula and SUPER GT champion Nick Cassidy posted a time of 49.038s to qualify an impressive eighth in the AF Corse Ferrari.
The top 10 was rounded out by Nico Muller in the Team Rosberg Audi and T3 Motorsport Lamborghini driver Esteban Muth.
Two-time DTM champion Marco Wittmann’s woes continued as he qualified on the last row of the grid in 19th in the Walkenhorst BMW, beating only the second Team Rosberg Audi of Dev Gore.
Qualifying results:
Cla | # | Driver | Car | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 30 |
Liam Lawson
|
Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 | 48.720 | |
2 | 3 |
Kelvin van der Linde
|
Audi R8 LMS Evo | 48.904 | 0.184 |
3 | 22 |
Lucas Auer
|
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 48.931 | 0.211 |
4 | 36 |
Arjun Maini
|
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 48.938 | 0.218 |
5 | 4 |
Maximilian Götz
|
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 48.960 | 0.240 |
6 | 57 |
Philip Ellis
|
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 48.986 | 0.266 |
7 | 8 |
Daniel Juncadella
|
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 49.024 | 0.304 |
8 | 23 |
Nick Cassidy
|
Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 | 49.038 | 0.318 |
9 | 51 |
Nico Müller
|
Audi R8 LMS Evo | 49.189 | 0.469 |
10 | 10 |
Esteban Muth
|
BMW M6 GT3 | 49.251 | 0.531 |
11 | 5 |
Vincent Abril
|
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 49.270 | 0.550 |
12 | 9 |
Mike Rockenfeller
|
Audi R8 LMS Evo | 49.291 | 0.571 |
13 | 37 |
Lucas di Grassi
|
Audi R8 LMS Evo | 49.292 | 0.572 |
14 | 18 |
Maximilian Buhk
|
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 49.292 | 0.572 |
15 | 99 |
Sophia Flörsch
|
Audi R8 LMS Evo | 49.444 | 0.724 |
16 | 16 |
Timo Glock
|
BMW M6 GT3 | 49.472 | 0.752 |
17 | 31 |
Sheldon Van Der Linde
|
BMW M6 GT3 | 49.487 | 0.767 |
18 | 26 |
Esmee Hawkey
|
Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo | 49.517 | 0.797 |
19 | 11 |
Marco Wittmann
|
BMW M6 GT3 | 49.568 | 0.848 |
20 | 12 |
Dev Gore
|
Audi R8 LMS Evo | 49.753 | 1.033 |
View full results |
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