Winward Mercedes driver Maro Engel secured his fourth profession DTM pole place with a time of 1m27.403s in qualifying for the 2026 season opener at Spielberg.
Regardless of the foremost Steadiness of Efficiency (BoP) modifications earlier than qualifying, Mercedes-AMG maintained its energy on the Purple Bull Ring, with Engel even beating Rene Rast’s earlier qualifying report of 1m27.671s from 2023.
Engel solely realized he was on pole place in parc ferme. “My radio stopped working in the previous couple of laps – I could not transmit or hear something,” Engel instructed ran.de. “I knew it was lap, however you by no means actually know the place you stand intimately. One of the simplest ways to begin the season.”
The 40-year-old driver, driving a Mercedes-AMG GT3 within the Ravenol livery, edged out McLaren teen Ben Dorr by a mere 0.015s to assert the highest spot. Dorr had already dominated testing and made a greater begin to the season than his team-mate Timo Glock, who completed ninth, 0.370s behind.
“I felt very comfy – additionally yesterday, on all of the coaching days we have had in latest weeks,” the 21-year-old from Frankfurt instructed ran.de. “I used to be in a position to enhance step-by-step, to get used to the automotive, which is a big benefit.”
Dorr virtually secured his second DTM pole place after final 12 months’s Sachsenring success. “In fact, first place would have been even higher, however let’s not complain,” he mentioned with a smile. “Second place is ok too. And sure, I am extremely glad.”
Third place went to native hero Thomas Preining, who was 0.048s behind in his equally robust Porsche. “I truly anticipated much less,” shrugged the Austrian “Grello” driver. “We did not have a straightforward day yesterday and made a couple of minor set-up modifications in a single day. The automotive is operating rather well, the lap was nice, and I believe we’ve a improbable beginning place for the race.”
Behind them got here automobiles from Mercedes-AMG and Porsche: native hero and runner-up Lucas Auer completed fourth within the Landgraf Mercedes (+0.203s).
Fifth place went to rookie Bastian Buus (+0.247s) within the Land Porsche, sixth place was taken by Engel’s team-mate Jules Gounon (+0.261s) and seventh place was held by the second Manthey Porsche driver, Ricardo Feller (+0.270s).
BMW and Lamborghini suffered a disappointment: the perfect driver for the Munich-based producer was Kelvin van der Linde (+0.547s) in eleventh place, whereas Marco Wittmann (+0.758s) completed in fifteenth place.
“We had a really tough pre-season take a look at,” Kelvin van der Linde, who’s returning after a year-long DTM break, factors out, referring to the technical issues. “I simply didn’t get sufficient laps in. Yesterday was additionally extraordinarily tough for me.” Subsequently, the German-South African was glad with being “better of the remainder.”
In the meantime, the Lamborghini drivers have been in the back of the sector of their new Temerario GT3. One of the best-placed driver for the Italian marque was Grasser’s Mirko Bortolotti (+0.794s) in seventeenth place. Abt newcomer Luca Engstler completed nineteenth (+0.933s), adopted by his team-mate Marco Mapelli (+1.520s) in twentieth, and Grasser’s Maximilian Paul (+1.604s) in twenty first and final place.
Qualifying outcomes
All Stats
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