Bortolotti Charges to Saturday Nürburgring Pole

Mirko Bortolotti captured his first DTM pole position of the season by beating points leader Thomas Preining in Saturday qualifying at the Nürburgring.

The Italian reeled off a best lap of 1:25.118 aboard the No. 92 SSR Performance Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 to go quickest, outpacing the No. 92 Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3 R of Thomas Preining by 0.160 seconds.

The two drivers traded the top time back and forth in the closing minutes of the session, with Preining initially gaining the upper hand on Bortolotti with his fastest effort of 1:25.278.

However, the Lamborghini factory driver then decided the battle in his favor by improving one more time, sealing pole position.

In the process, he became the seventh different driver to top qualifying this season after Franck Perera, Preining, Maro Engel, Ricardo Feller, Sheldon  van der Linde and Rene Rast took pole.

Bortolotti last started a race from pole position at last year’s Saturday race at the Nürburgring, where he was named the pole-sitter after the session was canceled due to heavy fog and the grid positions were determined based on championship standings.

Feller led an all-ABT Sportsline second row, qualifying third in the No. 7 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II to start alongside teammate Kelvin van der Linde.

Jack Aitken rounded out the top five in the No. 14 Emil Frey Racing Ferrari 296 GT3, ahead of Perera, Dennis Olsen and Lucas Auer.

Schubert Motorsport’s Rene Rast was the quickest BMW driver in ninth place, while Marco Wittman completed the top ten aboard the No. 11 Team Project 1 BMW M4 GT3.

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

RESULTS: Qualifying 1