Mirko Bortolotti has achieved the first pole of the 2022 season of the DTM after winning Saturday’s classification at the Portimao circuit. The GRT Grasser and Lamborghini driver has scored a time of 1:39.678 to conquer the first position by a narrow margin of 11 thousandths with respect to the surprising rookie Mikaël Grenier. For his part, the third position has been for Lucas Auer. Sébastien Loeb’s debut in a DTM classification has resulted in a discreet 21st place. A total of 24 drivers have lapped in less than a second.
The first qualifying session of the year was quite calm and clean, with favorable track conditions. Without the annoying wind of the tests and with the drivers and teams forced to give their best, the times seen a few days ago in Portimao were almost a laughing matter. In fact, Bortolotti’s final pole was three tenths quicker than AVL estimates. Mikaël Grenier was close to pole in this duel of experienced rookies, while Lucas Auer and Felipe Fraga finished third and fourth.
Mirko Bortolotti’s pole position was not the only cause for celebration within the Lamborghini project, as Nicki Thiim finished fifth, just over two and a half tenths behind his teammate brand, not team. Maro Engel was sixth while Sheldon Van der Linde finished seventh in the first of the BMW M4 DTMs. Behind the South African driver were Luca Stolz and reigning champion Maximilian Götz, as well as Nico Müller, the best Audi driver by beating René Rast by a few thousandths.
The equality that defines this new DTM under GT3 regulations has played a trick on some of the names of the category. In fact, Marco Wittmann has not been able to get past sixteenth position with the BMW of the Walkenhorst Motorsport team, while Kelvin Van der Linde finished just one position behind the 2014 champion. Unbeknownst to both, young David Schumacher will start his first race in the DTM. The son of Ralf Schumacher, a former Formula 1 driver, has signed a good performance by finishing six tenths behind the leader.
Leaving aside the discreet performance of the Porsche 911 GT3 R, with Dennis Olsen, Thomas Preining and Laurens Vanthoor in back positions, the level of the rest of the GT3 has been quite equal. And that in part has condemned one of the main claims of the DTM grid. In fact, Sébastien Loeb will start in 21st place despite the fact that his best lap was 786 thousandths slower than that of the poleman. The French star has in fact surpassed Marius Zug, dominator of one of the test days.
Results classification 1 of the DTM 2022 in Portimao
Photos: DTM