Add up and go on. Liam Lawson claimed pole position in Saturday’s DTM race at Assen, in a performance that continues the double harvested at the Red Bull Ring. The young AF Corse driver set a time of 1: 32.186 to beat Marco Wittmann by 16 thousandths. For his part, Maximilian Götz finished fourth behind Mirko Bortolotti in a qualifying session in which leader Kelvin Van der Linde was unable to get past eighth. One position behind the South African will leave Dani Juncadella after finishing ninth with the Mercedes # 8 of the GruppeM Racing team.
The first qualifying session of the DTM weekend at Assen took place on dry asphalt and left some interesting alternatives. In fact, Vincent Abril and Dani Juncadella were at the head of the times table in the first bars. Liam Lawson responded to overcome both, but Maximilian Götz replied to the New Zealander. With everything, Liam Lawson pulled out of his sleeve a 1: 32.186 already unattainable for the rest of his rivals. In fact, different pilots such as Marco Wittmann or Nico Müller passed in the shadow of the New Zealand rider, while Kelvin Van der Linde placed third.
Finally, Marco Wittmann took second place after placing 16 thousandths behind the poleman, not without intrigue over the red flag sparked by Dev Gore. The Audi driver’s spin delayed the outcome of the session, something that perhaps played in favor of a Maximilian Götz who finally got the fourth place behind Mirko Bortolotti and ahead of Philip Ellis. With a great final rush, Christian Klien climbed to sixth place with JP Motorsport’s McLaren, all after beating Alex Albon. The second AF Corse driver had to settle for sixth place on the grid after finishing two tenths behind the poleman.
Just behind the Williams driver will leave two of the drivers called to be protagonists at Assen. On the one hand, Kelvin Van der Linde will start eighth, a position that greatly compromises his leadership as Liam Lawson is on pole. Right next to the South African Dani Juncadella will start. The Spanish rider finished ninth and has a great opportunity to fight for the top spots. However, both drivers will have to be careful with the rivals that are right behind them, since Nico Müller and Vincent Abril have shown that they can be two very combative pilots.
Classification 1 results of the DTM 2021 in Assen