Sheldon van der Linde took pole position this morning for race 2 of the DTM at the Lausitzring Turn 1 Powered By Autohero with a blistering last gasp lap in a session disrupted by a red flag following a fire in the Red Bull Ferrari. Rene Rast picked up second place followed by Maro Engel in third.
Marco Wittmann in the Walkenhorst BMW was the first to get into the 1:31’s and briefly held the top spot before Denis Olsen in the SSR Performance Porsche beat him by 3 tenths of a second. Nico Müller in the Team Rosberg Audi took the top time at the end of the first session beating Olsen by a tenth of a second. Yesterday’s race winner, Sheldon van der Linde only completed 4 laps in the first session leaving him in ninth place nearly a second adrift of pole position.
Just a few minutes into the second session there was drama as the #74 Red Bull AF Corse Ferrari of Felipe Fraga caused a red flag after his car burst into flames. Having not yet set a time in the session, the Brazilian driver did what he could to save the car, helping the marshals to extinguish the flames slowly engulfing the car. The only certainty was that if the team could repair the car in the two hours prior to the race then it would be starting from last place.
When the green flag came out there was just over 4 minutes left in the session and it would be an all out sprint to bag a lap time with little margin for error. With an out lap of around 1 minute 50 seconds it would be be tight but most of the drivers were able to sneak in a second lap. At the end of the first flying lap it was Müller who improved on his earlier times keeping him at the top of the table. Marco Wittmann joined him at the top, dropping in the second fastest time but they wouldn’t stay there for long.
Sheldon van der Linde hooked up his lap and blasted his Schubert Motorsport BMW across the line to take pole position with a lap of 1:30.99, his first pole since the race at the Lausitzring last year. Three times DTM champion Rene Rast in the Team ABT Audi picked up second place just a tenth behind whilst Maro Engel in the Gruppe M Racing Mercedes repeated his third place qualifying from yesterday but would be hoping for a better start to race 2 than he had for race 1.
Race 2 of the DTM weekend takes place later today at 13:30 CET (12:30 BST).
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