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Autosport
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Rachit Thukral

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