Kelvin van der Linde continued with his great form this weekend at DTM Hockenheim, claiming the first double pole position of the season in his Team Abt Sportsline Audi R8 GT3.
DTM HOCKENHEIM: WIN A SIGNED PHOTO OF PHILIP ELLIS | QUALIFYING 1 REPORT | RACE 1 REPORT | QUALIFYING 2 REPORT | RACE 2 REPORT
When the session went green, Kelvin van der Linde was one of the last on track but with his first fast lap jumped straight to the top of the standings just three tenths of a second ahead of Lucas Auer in the Mercedes-AMG Team Winward Mercedes AMG GT3.
Nico Müller briefly held pole but with all the cars in the pits, Van der Linde’s teammate, Mike Rockenfeller, came from nowhere to post the next fastest time. For Rockenfeller, the job was done and with 4 minutes remaining he parked his Audi in the garage.
With the second half of qualifying well underway, he didn’t stay first for long with Arjun Maini pushing him off the top spot first, followed by Liam Lawson who took second before Lucas Auer reclaimed pole position for the second time in the session.
All this pushed Van der Linde down to fourth. With his first fast lap aborted, the South African had one final chance to take P1. Having seen his position on the leader board as he rounded the Sachs Kurve, he knew he had to push on his final lap. At the flag, his lap was 0.087 seconds faster than Auer; the relief and joy inside the Audi was clear to see as pole position was confirmed.
Lawson finished in fourth but was promoted a place due to Arjun Maini taking a five-place grid penalty for his collision in race one with Lucas Auer.
Sunday’s DTM race 2 at the Hockenheimring starts at 13:30 CEST.
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