Title in his sights: Mirko Bortolotti secures pole for Race 2 at Red Bull Ring

Championship leader Mirko Bortolotti is in champion mode. The Lamborghini driver from SSR Performance took pole position in Sunday morning’s second qualifying session at the Red Bull Ring, and with it three valuable points towards the championship. The Italian set the fastest lap time of 1:27.921 minutes in Spielberg and was the only driver to dip below the 1:28.000-minute mark.

“I couldn’t believe it at first, what a phenomenal lap. In these cool temperatures, it was a big challenge to get the tyre into the optimal working window. In René Rast, I have an incredibly fast driver right behind me, so we have an intense race in store,” said Bortolotti after his second pole of the season.

0.263 seconds slower in second place was Luca Engstler from Lamborghini Team Liqui Moly by GRT. Behind him, René Rast qualified in the top three in the Schubert Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 for the first time this season. Reigning DTM champion Thomas Preining was fourth in a Porsche 911 GT3 R for Manthey EMA, while his team-mate Ayhancan Güven will start from fifth on the grid.

The man currently second in the championship, Kelvin van der Linde from Audi team Abt Sportsline, could do no better than eleventh place. Starting a further two places back will be the driver currently third in the table, Maro Engel in a Mercedes-AMG GT3.

Unlike in Saturday’s opening qualifying, the track at the Red Bull Ring was completely dry on Sunday morning. However, temperatures at the start of the second session were only around eight degrees. As a result, it took several laps to get the Pirelli slicks up to the optimal working window.

With this in mind, many drivers headed out early onto the 4.318-kilometre track, in order to start their pursuit of the perfect lap on tyres that had been heated perfectly. Rast set the first fast times, before Engstler moved to the top of the timings sheet. With roughly a minute of the second qualifying remaining, an ice-cold Bortolotti struck with the fastest time of the session.

Results are HERE