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Qualifying report

Zolder DTM: Wittmann takes pole for BMW in truncated qualifying

Two-time DTM champion Marco Wittmann claimed BMW’s first pole position of the 2021 season in a truncated qualifying at Zolder on Sunday.

Marco Wittmann, Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW M6 GT3.

Marco Wittmann, Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW M6 GT3.

Gruppe C GmbH

Walkenhorst driver Wittmann had just gone to the top of the timesheets when Rowe Racing’s Timo Glock stopped on track with an apparent technical issue on his BMW M6 GT3.

With just over two minutes left on the clock, the session was not restarted, granting Wittmann his first pole position in the DTM since Brands Hatch in 2019.

The German driver’s chart-topping time of 1m26.687s was comfortably the fastest lap of the weekend, over two tenths clear of the Winward Mercedes of Lucas Auer, who booked a spot alongside Wittmann on the front row of the grid.

2013 champion Mike Rockenfeller was Audi’s top qualifier in third, just ahead of Abt Sportsline teammate and championship leader Kelvin van der Linde. Both will carry heavy ballast on their cars after finishing second and first respectively in Saturday’s opening race.

GruppeM Mercedes driver Daniel Juncadella held the top spot for much of the first runs with a 1m27.452s, but slipped to fifth in the final classification, ahead of the Team Rosberg Audi of last year’s runner-up Nico Muller.

Liam Lawson qualified seventh in the lead Red Bull-backed AF Corse Ferrari, finishing nearly a second off the pace after being caught out by the late red flag triggered by Glock.

Ex-Formula 1 driver Christian Klien qualified his JP Motorsport-run McLaren an excellent eighth on the grid, having failed to break inside the top in his debut DTM qualifying on Saturday.

Maximilian Gotz (HRT) and Maximilian Buhk (Mucke) completed the top 10, the two Mercedes drivers separated by less than six hundredths of a second.

Esmee Hawkey enjoyed her best qualifying in the DTM, a late improvement to a 1m27.962s putting her T3 Lamborghini 11th on the grid ahead of the second Red Bull Ferrari of Alex Albon.

BMW's Sheldon van der Linde qualified down in 16th place, having not got an opportunity to set a laptime in the second run after Glock’s sudden on-track stoppage.

Only 19 cars took part in qualifying, with GetSpeed driver Arjun Maini forced to sit out the rest of the weekend due to damage sustained to his Mercedes chassis in Saturday’s opening race.

Qualifying results: 

Cla # Driver Car Time Gap
1 11 Germany Marco Wittmann
BMW M6 GT3 1'26.687
2 22 Austria Lucas Auer
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 1'26.901 0.214
3 9 Germany Mike Rockenfeller
Audi R8 LMS Evo 1'26.956 0.269
4 3 South Africa Kelvin van der Linde
Audi R8 LMS Evo 1'27.048 0.361
5 8 Spain Daniel Juncadella
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 1'27.452 0.765
6 51 Switzerland Nico Müller
Audi R8 LMS Evo 1'27.519 0.832
7 30 New Zealand Liam Lawson
Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 1'27.605 0.918
8 15 Austria Christian Klien
McLaren 720S GT3 1'27.789 1.102
9 4 Germany Maximilian Götz
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 1'27.844 1.157
10 18 Germany Maximilian Buhk
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 1'27.903 1.216
11 26 United Kingdom Esmee Hawkey
Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 1'27.962 1.275
12 23 Thailand Alex Albon
Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 1'27.984 1.297
13 12 United States Dev Gore
Audi R8 LMS Evo 1'28.006 1.319
14 5 France Vincent Abril
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 1'28.122 1.435
15 10 Belgium Esteban Muth
Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 1'28.569 1.882
16 31 South Africa Sheldon Van Der Linde
BMW M6 GT3 1'28.590 1.903
17 99 Germany Sophia Flörsch
Audi R8 LMS Evo 1'29.186 2.499
18 57 United Kingdom Philip Ellis
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 1'30.248 3.561
19 16 Germany Timo Glock
BMW M6 GT3 1'40.489 13.802

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