DTM - Jack Aitken claims first pole position of the season

“I knew that we are fast in Oschersleben. Last year we were second in qualifying, and we are even stronger this season. Pole position is really important, as it is very difficult to overtake here. It will be tough against Mirko at the start of this afternoon’s race, as Lamborghini are very fast,” said Emil Frey Racing driver Aitken, understandably delighted with his second pole position in the DTM. In third place, just 0.02 seconds slower than Bortolotti, was Arjun Maini from Mercedes-AMG Team HRT, who backed up the fine form he showed in Friday’s free practice. Ricardo Feller was fourth for Abt Sportsline in an Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo2, while Luca Stolz qualified fifth in the second HRT Mercedes-AMG GT3.

The drivers only really went to work in the second half of the first qualifying session of the season at Motorsport Arena Oschersleben. However, there was no lack of action in the final six minutes, with new times appearing at the top of the timing sheet every few seconds. Aitken set his fastest time on his sixth lap, jumping ahead of Bortolotti who had gone fastest shortly beforehand.

There was then more excitement in the closing stages: qualifying was suspended after Nicki Thiim crashed in his Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2, but the pursuit of lap times resumed after a short break. However, nobody was able to improve on their times in the final three minutes – not even defending champion Thomas Preining, who starts the first race of the season from 16th place in his Porsche 911 GT3 R.