DTM - Close, closer : Kelvin van der Linde shocks Preining in Q1 at Lausitzring

Last-minute precision: Audi driver Kelvin van der Linde (ZA/Abt Sportsline) produced the best time just before the end of Saturday afternoon’s first qualifying session at the Dekra Lausitzring. He went round in 1:20.706, six thousandths of a second faster than Thomas Preining (A), who finished second in the Porsche 911 GT3 R. He was followed by van der Linde’s team-mate Ricardo Feller (CH), 0.019 seconds behind the Austrian driver in third place.

“Simply magnificent! We noticed a problem with the car after Oschersleben. I would never have expected to place so well right away here at the Lausitzring. My engineer told me over the radio that I had one attempt left. Of course, you do feel a bit of pressure. I just gave it my all, the lap was right on the limit,” said the South African driver.

He secured his sixth pole position and three additional points as the fastest driver in qualifying. Porsche driver Ayhancan Güven (TR) from the Manthey EMA team claimed fourth position, proving that his good performance in the practice session was no fluke. Fifth place went to Arjun Maini (IND), who again delivered the goods for the Mercedes-AMG Team HRT in qualifying.

The qualifying session began at 13:30 on Saturday, with temperatures around 23 degrees Celsius. The 20 drivers used the early laps to get their Pirelli tyres into the ideal temperature window. The spectators at the Lausitzring were then treated to one top time after another as the leaders swapped positions on a regular basis.

With just one minute to go, defending champion Preining laid down the fastest time up to that point on his eighth lap, and it looked very much as if the 25-year-old would claim his sixth pole position. However, van der Linde was able to strike back on his final lap and will start the third race of the DTM season at 17:00 from first place. There were also plenty of battles going outside the top spots: The first 14 drivers were within half a second of one another.