Aitken Beats Bortolotti to Saturday Lausitzring Pole

Jack Aitken gave Emil Frey Racing its first DTM pole position by outpacing Mirko Bortolotti in Saturday qualifying at the Lausitzring.

The British driver steered the No. 14 Ferrari 296 GT3 to a best lap of 1:19.937, enough to beat the No. 92 SSR Performance Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 by a mere 0.054 seconds.

It marked the first series pole position for Aitken, as well as the Swiss Emil Frey squad and the Ferrari 296 GT3.

Aitken’s quickest time came at the end of a fiercely contested battle for pole in the second half of qualifying, with as many as six different drivers jumping to the top spot in the closing minutes.

This was in stark contrast to the opening phase of the 20-minute session, when only the No. 56 Team Project 1 BMW M4 GT3 of Sandro Holzem was out on track.

Once the rest of the field joined the track, times rapidly tumbled until Lucas Auer seemingly had pole locked up when he posted a 1:20.016 aboard his No. 22 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

However, late improvements from Aitken and Bortolotti dropped the Team Winward driver to third place.

Kelvin van der Linde, another late contender for pole, qualified fourth ahead of ABT Sportsline teammate Ricardo Feller and brother Sheldon aboard the No. 1 BMW.

Thierry Vermeulen put the No. 69 Emil Frey Ferrari seventh on the grid ahead of Clemens Schmid’s No. 63 GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini.

The top ten was completed by Luca Stolz and Maximilian Paul, with Rene Rast and Marco Wittmann eleventh and twelfth.

The opening race of the weekend kicks off at 1:30 p.m. CEST (7:30 a.m. EDT).

RESULTS: Qualifying 1