Felipe Fraga has achieved his first pole position in the DTM after winning Sunday’s group qualifying session at the Norisring. The Brazilian has signed a time of 48.717, a record that has served to beat Mirko Bortolotti by 68 thousandths and place the Group A drivers on the odd side of the grid, although this distribution has been altered by the suspension of three positions for the Turkish Ayhancan Güven. In fact, Marco Wittmann and Thomas Preining will occupy the second row after Güven’s aforementioned penalty.
The second qualifying session of the DTM at the Norisring was held in the reverse order of Saturday’s ‘qualy’, so the Group B riders took to the track first. In this stage, Mirko Bortolotti has set the standard with a time of 48.785, record that has served to overcome Ayhancan Guvën by 178 thousandths. He thus ensured the Turkish starting position more or less forward after taking a three-position penalty. Behind the Turk were Maximilian Götz and Dennis Olsen.
The best times in the turn of Group A were waiting. In fact, it was necessary to wait for the last breath of the session to see the time that the pole was worth. Almost on his last lap, Felipe Fraga signed the final 48,717 which was well worth a pole after beating the best record in Group B by 68 thousandths. Marco Wittmann was almost two tenths behind the Brazilian, but this was enough for him to occupy third position on the grid behind Mirko Bortolotti, dominator of the first qualifying group.
If Fraga and Bortolotti are in the front row and Wittmann will come after them, fourth place goes to Thomas Preining, who benefited from Güven’s suspension. The Austrian driver of the KÜS Team Bernhard is running as a firm candidate for victory after achieving Porsche’s first win in the DTM yesterday. In this slightly ‘altered’ order of grill, Maximilian Götz will start fifth on the third row of the grid alongside René Rastso the winners of the last three editions of the DTM will start ‘hand in hand’.
Ayhancan Güven and Dennis Olsen share the fourth row of the grid, while in the fifth appears Sheldon Van der Linde, current leader of the category. The Schubert Motorsport driver will have to try to climb positions and add a good loot of points to nip in the bud the ‘bleeding’ that he is suffering from his rivals. He will be accompanied in this fifth row by Philipp Eng, his teammate, closing a ‘top 10’ in which the six manufacturers that have a ‘race-customer’ program in the German event are present.
Results classification 2 of the DTM 2022 in Norisring
* Penalty of three positions.
Photos: DTM