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Rachit Thukral

Portimao DTM: Bortolotti puts Lamborghini on pole for opener

Grasser Racing’s Bortolotti didn’t venture out on track until the final five minutes of the 20-minute session, opting to complete just a single run in the pole shootout.

However, the lack of track time didn’t appear to have any impact on his driving as he was immediately up to pace, setting the second-quickest lap time of the session behind Red Bull’s Felipe Fraga on his very first flying lap in qualifying.

DTM rookie Mikael Grenier then found over three tenths of a second to dislodge Bortolotti from the top and claim provisional pole for the expanded two-car GruppeM Mercedes team.

However, the Italian had even more pace up his sleeve and responded with a time of 1m39.678s on his final lap, clinching pole position by just 0.011s in his first qualifying session as a DTM full-timer.

The result also marked Lamborghini’s first-ever pole position in the DTM and follows Bortolotti securing a maiden podium for the Italian supercar maker as a wildcard entrant at Assen last year.

Grenier ended up second on the grid alongside Bortolotti, beating the Winward Mercedes of Lucas Auer by just 0.031s as 26 out of 29 drivers were covered by just over a second.

Fraga’s previous time of 1m39.738s put him fourth on the grid in the Red Bull-backed AF Corse Ferrari, just ahead of the Lamborghini of T3 Motorsport’s star signing Nicki Thiim.

Greiner’s teammate Maro Engel qualified sixth on his return to the DTM, setting a time of 1m39.933s in his GruppeM Mercedes.

Schubert Motorsport driver Sheldon van der Linde was the top qualifier for BMW in seventh, just ahead of the HRT Mercedes of Luca Stolz and reigning DTM champion Maximilian Gotz (Winward Mercedes).

Team Rosberg driver Nico Muller led qualifying after first runs but slumped to 10th at the finish, although he remained Audi’s best-placed driver with a time of 1m40.098s.

Qualifying just behind Muller was his former DTM rival and three-time champion Rene Rast, who led the charge for the three-car Abt Sportsline team in 11th.

Rast’s teammates Ricardo Feller and Kelvin van der Linde ended up 13th and 17th respectively, the duo separated by just 0.060s.

Porsche endured a difficult first qualifying session in the DTM despite being competitive in practice, with SSR Performance driver Dennis Olsen the marque’s top qualifier in 19th ahead of Team Bernhard 75’s Thomas Preining.

Factory Porsche driver Laurens Vanthoor fared even worse in the other SSR Performance 911 GT3-R, qualifying more than a second off the pace in 26th place.

Meanwhile, WRC legend Sebastien Loeb qualified in a respectable 21st place during his first weekend in the DTM with the Red Bull AF Corse team, posting a time that was 0.786s slower than pacesetter Bortolotti.

Portimao DTM - Saturday qualifying results:

Cla # Driver Car Time Gap
1 63 Italy Mirko Bortolotti Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 1'39.678  
2 55 Canada Mikael Grenier Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 1'39.689 0.011
3 22 Austria Lucas Auer Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 1'39.719 0.041
4 74 Brazil Felipe Fraga Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 1'39.738 0.060
5 95 Denmark Nicki Thiim Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 1'39.929 0.251
6 88 Germany Maro Engel Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 1'39.933 0.255
7 31 South Africa Sheldon Van Der Linde BMW M4 GT3 1'39.955 0.277
8 4 Germany Luca Stolz Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 1'39.988 0.310
9 1 Germany Maximilian Götz Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 1'40.090 0.412
10 51 Switzerland Nico Müller Audi R8 LMS Evo II 1'40.098 0.420
11 33 Germany René Rast Audi R8 LMS Evo II 1'40.172 0.494
12 18 Germany Maximilian Buhk Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 1'40.234 0.556
13 7 Switzerland Ricardo Feller Audi R8 LMS Evo II 1'40.277 0.599
14 85 Austria Clemens Schmid Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 1'40.281 0.603
15 36 India Arjun Maini Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 1'40.284 0.606
16 11 Germany Marco Wittmann BMW M4 GT3 1'40.312 0.634
17 3 South Africa Kelvin van der Linde Audi R8 LMS Evo II 1'40.337 0.659
18 27 Germany David Schumacher Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 1'40.360 0.682
19 94 Norway Dennis Olsen Porsche 911 GT3 R 1'40.388 0.710
20 24 Austria Thomas Preining Porsche 911 GT3 R 1'40.392 0.714
21 37 France Sébastien Loeb Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 1'40.464 0.786
22 66 Marius Zug Audi R8 LMS Evo II 1'40.521 0.843
23 12 United States Dev Gore Audi R8 LMS Evo II 1'40.536 0.858
24 25 Austria Philipp Eng BMW M4 GT3 1'40.623 0.945
25 19 Switzerland Rolf Ineichen Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 1'40.697 1.019
26 92 Belgium Laurens Vanthoor Porsche 911 GT3 R 1'40.770 1.092
27 26 United Kingdom Esmee Hawkey Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 1'40.895 1.217
28 10 Belgium Esteban Muth BMW M4 GT3 1'41.030 1.352
29 6 Italy Alessio Deledda Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 1'41.880 2.202
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