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James Newbold

Lausitzring DTM: Auer holds off charging van der Linde for pole

Auer, who won the opening round of the 2022 season in Portimao and has three DTM victories to his name at the east German track, posted the benchmark time of 1m30.654s in the opening half of the 20-minute session but couldn't improve his time further as others around him closed in.

Van der Linde, who had been 0.25s behind the Austrian at the halfway point in the session, produced two laps less than a tenth slower than Auer but had to settle for second on the grid as the only non-Mercedes driver in the top four.

The South African's late effort demoted Maro Engel to third, the GruppeM Mercedes driver 0.067s slower than stablemate Auer in an ultra-tight session, with Luca Stolz fourth in the leading HRT Mercedes.

Stolz however faces an investigation for crossing the white line at the pit exit.

Felipe Fraga had been third in the closing stages of the session before behind shuffled back to fifth in the Red Bull Ferrari, and will share the third row with Stolz's teammate Arjun Maini.

Philipp Eng will line up seventh in the second Schubert BMW, ahead of reigning ADAC GT Masters champion Ricardo Feller in the leading Abt Audi entry.

The Swiss set an identical laptime, 1m31.147s, to championship leader Mirko Bortolotti's Grasser Racing Lamborghini but will start ahead courtesy of posting his effort first.

Three-time DTM champion Rene Rast rounded out the top 10, 0.494s down on Auer and only a thousand of a second slower than Feller and Bortolotti.

The best Porsche was Dennis Olsen's SSR Performance example in 11th, as Nick Cassidy took 12th on his first appearance of the season in the second Red Bull Ferrari.

Portimao race two winner Nico Muller waited until the final eight minutes of the session to venture out of the pits for the first time, but couldn't repeat Bortolotti's successful adoption of the tactic in Portimao.

The Swiss could only muster the 14th-quickest time in his Team Rosberg Audi, just behind defending champion Maximilian Gotz's Winward Mercedes.

A similar strategy for David Schumacher in the third Winward Mercedes yielded the 17th-quickest time.

Lausitzring DTM - Qualifying results:

 Pos  Nº   Driver   Car / Engine   Time   Delay 
22  Lucas Auer Mercedes 1'30.654  
31  Sheldon van der Linde BMW 1'30.679 0.025
88  Maro Engel Mercedes 1'30.721 0.067
Luca Stolz Mercedes 1'30.864 0.210
74  Felipe Fraga Ferrari 1'30.971 0.317
36  Arjun Maini Mercedes 1'30.987 0.333
25  Philipp Eng BMW 1'31.118 0.464
Ricardo Feller Audi 1'31.147 0.493
63  Mirko Bortolotti Lamborghini 1'31.147 0.493
10  33  René Rast Audi 1'31.148 0.494
11  94  Dennis Olsen Porsche 1'31.159 0.505
12  37  Nick Cassidy Ferrari 1'31.172 0.518
13  Maximilian Götz Mercedes 1'31.184 0.530
14  51  Nico Müller Audi 1'31.302 0.648
15  55  Mikaël Grenier Mercedes 1'31.304 0.650
16  11  Marco Wittmann BMW 1'31.397 0.743
17  27  David Schumacher Mercedes 1'31.437 0.783
18  18  Maximilian Buhk Mercedes 1'31.461 0.807
19  Kelvin van der Linde Audi 1'31.528 0.874
20  24  Thomas Preining Porsche 1'31.540 0.886
21  10  Esteban Muth BMW 1'31.575 0.921
22  92  Laurens Vanthoor Porsche 1'31.666 1.012
23  95  Nicki Thiim Lamborghini 1'31.799 1.145
24  12  Dev Gore Audi 1'31.806 1.152
25  66  Marius Zug Audi 1'31.812 1.158
26  19  Rolf Ineichen Lamborghini 1'32.220 1.566
27  85  Clemens Schmid Lamborghini 1'32.483 1.829
28  26  Esmee Hawkey Lamborghini 1'33.252 2.598
29  Alessio Deledda Lamborghini 1'34.366 3.712
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