Kelvin van der Linde starts fightback with pole position at Hockenheim

Kelvin van der Linde secured his third pole position of the season on Saturday morning, as qualifying at the Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg produced drama right down to the final seconds. The Audi driver from Abt Sportsline, who lies second in the table, set the fastest time of 1:48.797 shortly before the end of the session, underlining his title ambitions in the process. Thanks to the three points for first place in qualifying, the South African has closed to within twelve points of championship leader Mirko Bortolotti, who starts Saturday’s race from down in seventh place.

“That was such an important pole position, I had goosebumps after the lap and am a bit speechless. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting such a good time. We obviously want to win the race and up the pressure in the title race,” said a delighted Kelvin van der Linde after claiming his the ninth DTM pole of his career. Lucas Auer will start the penultimate race of the season from second place on the grid in his Mercedes-AMG GT3. Ayhancan Güven was third for Manthey EMA in a Porsche 911 GT3 R, while Luca Engstler guided his Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2 to fourth place. Jack Aitken from Emil Frey Racing was fifth fastest in a Ferrari 296 GT3.

The eagerly anticipated first qualifying of the DTM finale at the Hockenheimring began cautiously in temperatures of 14 degrees Celsius. Almost all the drivers took to the damp track on wet tyres as they explored how far they could push the limits. Kelvin van der Linde was first to set a flying lap time and topped the timing sheet ahead of Bortolotti for a long time. With five minutes remaining, the order was shaken up completely.

Porsche drivers Güven and Thomas Preining initially swapped places at the top of the timings, before Engstler led the way briefly. With time running out, Kelvin van der Linde made his move. The 28-year-old had at one point switched to the Pirelli slicks, but returned to the wet tyres for the closing stages of qualifying – and the move paid dividends, as he set the fastest time in the dying seconds. Bortolotti was unable to counter, while the third-placed driver in the championship, Maro Engel from Mercedes-AMG Team Winward, had to settle for ninth place.

Results are HERE