DTM Nurburgring: Van der Linde brothers lockout front row

After qualifying for Saturday’s first race was cancelled due to fog, which caused the race to be delayed by several hours, conditions on Sunday morning were much improved and dipped under the pace-setting practice times set on Friday by SSR Porsche driver Dennis Olsen. 

The Norwegian would end up third behind the on-form South African brothers, while Lucas Auer tumbled to 10th in the final classification after heading the times into the closing minutes. 

Confirming that his pace on Friday had been no fluke, Olsen set the early running and led team-mate Laurens Vanthoor at the halfway point in the quick-fire 20-minute session.  

Auer, who had elected to stay in his garage during the early exchanges, then emerged to make the most of the free track and pumped in two laps good enough to usurp Olsen before the remainder of the field re-entered the fray. 

But the Winward Mercedes’ spell atop the leaderboard was short-lived as Sheldon van der Linde whisked his Schubert BMW to the top of the times on a 1m25.945s. 

Thomas Preining’s Bernhard Porsche also ducked under Auer’s 1m26.126s to go second, before Olsen deposed both of them on a 1m25.973s.  

That time was then matched by Mirko Bortolotti, despite the addition of 20kg to his Grasser Lamborghini in the latest Balance of Performance tweak, although the Italian will take a five-place grid penalty for his contact in race one with Felipe Fraga and start ninth as a result. 

But both Olsen and Bortolotti demoted by a last-gasp effort from Kelvin van der Linde, who had been 18th prior to setting a time just 0.010s slower than his younger brother.  

Top 3 after Qualifying, Pole sitter Sheldon van der Linde, Schubert Motorsport, Dennis Olsen, SSR Performance, Kelvin van der Linde, Team ABT Sportsline (Photo by: DTM)

The Abt Audi man’s effort was all the more impressive as team-mates Rene Rast and Ricardo Feller both struggled to 17th and 23rd fastest respectively.  

Preining is elevated to fourth by Bortolotti’s penalty, ahead of Philipp Eng (Schubert BMW), and defending champion Max Gotz, Auer’s team-mate the leading Mercedes in sixth. 

Luca Stolz, who was turned around on the opening lap of Saturday’s race, will start seventh in the Haupt Racing Team Mercedes ahead of Vanthoor, Bortolotti and Auer. 

After his race one disappointment, Fraga could only qualify 16th with 15kg added to his Red Bull Ferrari in BoP weight. 

DTM Nurburgring -  Sunday Qualifying Results

Cla	Driver	Car	Time	Gap
1	Sheldon Van Der Linde	BMW M4 GT3	1'25.945
2	Kelvin van der Linde	Audi R8 LMS Evo II	1'25.955	0.010
3	Dennis Olsen	Porsche 911 GT3 R	1'25.973	0.028
4	Mirko Bortolotti	Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo	1'25.973	0.028
5	Thomas Preining	Porsche 911 GT3 R	1'26.009	0.064
6	Philipp Eng	BMW M4 GT3	1'26.032	0.087
7	Maximilian Götz	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	1'26.053	0.108
8	Luca Stolz	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	1'26.097	0.152
9	Laurens Vanthoor	Porsche 911 GT3 R	1'26.123	0.178
10	Lucas Auer	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	1'26.126	0.181
11	Nico Müller	Audi R8 LMS Evo II	1'26.127	0.182
12	Marco Wittmann	BMW M4 GT3	1'26.137	0.192
13	Mikael Grenier	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	1'26.143	0.198
14	Arjun Maini	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	1'26.200	0.255
15	Maro Engel	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	1'26.216	0.271
16	Felipe Fraga	Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020	1'26.220	0.275
17	René Rast	Audi R8 LMS Evo II	1'26.226	0.281
18	Maximilian Buhk	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	1'26.230	0.285
19	Nick Cassidy	Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020	1'26.256	0.311
20	Rolf Ineichen	Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo	1'26.271	0.326
21	Clemens Schmid	Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo	1'26.459	0.514
22	David Schumacher	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	1'26.470	0.525
23	Ricardo Feller	Audi R8 LMS Evo II	1'26.587	0.642
24	Dev Gore	Audi R8 LMS Evo II	1'26.609	0.664
25	Esteban Muth	BMW M4 GT3	1'26.638	0.693
26	Marius Zug	Audi R8 LMS Evo II	1'26.786	0.841
27	Alessio Deledda	Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo	1'27.239	1.294
28	Theo Oeverhaus	BMW M4 GT3	1'27.370	1.425
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