The first qualifying session of the DTM by groups has ended with the pole of Kelvin Van der Linde. The Abt rider, embedded in Group B, set a time of 49.236, a record that allows the South African to start in first position and all the riders who have shared the track with him to be on the odd side of the grid. For its part, Thomas Preining was the fastest driver in Group A and will start from the front row with Van der Linde. Great performance by rookie Ayhancan Güven in his first classification in the DTM.
The first qualifying session of the DTM at the Norisring, with this peculiar group format, started with a Group A in which René Rast and Thomas Preining exchanged blows. The fast times of the three-time DTM champion were answered by the Porsche driver. In this dynamic, Thomas Preining finally prevailed with a time of 49.252, a record with which he surpassed Franck Perera by 70 thousandths, the second debutant this weekend. For his part, René Rast had to settle for third place.
With this 49,252 as a bar to beat, the ‘qualy’ began for the Group B riders. With Dennis Olsen as the pilot called to break this record, finally it was Kelvin Van der Linde who imposed his law with a 49.236 which is well worth a pole and a better starting position for all his ‘partners’ in Group B. The Abt rider managed to win by 23 thousandths over Ayhancan Güven, which leads the Turk to start in third position alongside Franck Pererain a second row of debutantes.
In this distribution of odd positions for the Group B drivers and even positions for the Group A drivers, the Austrian Lucas Auer will start in fifth position ahead of René Rast. Already in fourth row appears Mirko Bortolotti together with Arjun Maini, which allows the Italian to have a very positive position when it comes to cut points from leader Sheldon Van der Lindesince the BMW driver has not managed to be among the best in Group A and will start in the last positions of the grid.
Many more options to get a good result have Ricardo Feller and Nico Müller, the two pilots who will occupy the fifth starting row. In addition, both come from a good performance in Imola, since Feller achieved a victory and Müller took one of the podiums. Of course, both will have enormous competition behind, since Dennis Olsen, Felipe Fraga, Maximilian Götz and Marco Wittmann will appear behind himpilots hungry to reach the points zone.
Results classification 1 of the DTM 2022 in Norisring
Photos: DTM