Auer Reduces Points Gap With Hockenheim Race 1 Pole

Lucas Auer reduced Sheldon van der Linde’s DTM series lead to eight points by taking pole position for the first race of the title-deciding weekend at Hockenheim.

The Mercedes-AMG Team Winward driver earned three extra points by setting the fastest lap time in Saturday morning’s 20-minute qualifying session.

Auer posted a 1:36.479 in the closing stages to take his second pole of the season, with the Austrian beating fellow Mercedes-AMG driver Luca Stolz by 0.061 seconds.

Stolz removed two points from his mathematically reversible 28-point deficit to van der Linde, while Mirko Bortolotti claimed the single additional point on offer.

Bortolotti, who is fifth in the standings and also in title contention, placed third with a time of 1:36.627 in his Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo.

Van der Linde qualified sixth for Race 1 in his Schubert Motorsport BMW M4 GT3.

The South African will start behind fellow BMW pilot Marco Wittmann and Mercedes-AMG driver Maro Engel, while his brother Kelvin van der Linde took seventh overall in the best of the Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo IIs.

A total of 16 drivers had lap times deleted due to track limit breaches, although everyone managed to set a representative number to form the grid for Saturday afternoon’s 55-minute plus one-lap contest.

The penultimate race of the DTM season starts at 1:33 p.m. CEST (7:33 a.m. ET).

RESULTS: Qualifying 1