– Thomas Preining confirms his dominance in Oschersleben: The “Grello” Porsche driver secures pole position in 1:22.400 in Sunday’s qualifying, after pole and victory on Saturday – once again ahead of Abt-Lamborghini driver Luca Engstler, who was 0.105 seconds behind and also finished second on Saturday (Qualifying result).
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“A super weekend – the car was fantastic again, just like yesterday and Friday,” Preining rejoices at ran.de about the renewed top result. “It was a real team effort this weekend – and of course, I hope we can convert that in the race.”
That will be more difficult than on Saturday, as the Manthey driver will have to cope with the 20 kilograms of success ballast in the race, which he received for his victory on Saturday. However, the performance of the Austrian is once again demonstrated by the positions of the other Porsche drivers: teammate Ricardo Feller (+0.319) finished eleventh, Land-Porsche driver Bastian Buus (+0.387) came in 13th place.
BMW success thanks to ill Wittmann – and tire advantage!
There was also a success for Marco Wittmann, who is suffering from a gastrointestinal illness, as he positioned himself in third place with a gap of +0.150 seconds after his retirement on Saturday, thus ensuring a good BMW result at Schubert’s home race.
“The car already felt good yesterday, and now – also with the BoP changes – we can drive at the front,” he refers to the changed Balance of Performance (BoP), which once again allows the BMW M4 GT3 Evo more boost pressure. The Franconian also has an additional ace up his sleeve due to his retirement, as all drivers in Oschersleben only have three sets of tires available for both race days.
“Of course, due to my retirement yesterday, I have a tire advantage in the race,” says the two-time champion at ran.de. “I hope we can use that.”
DTM leader Engel best Mercedes-AMG driver
HRT-Ford driver Arjun Maini (+0.222) and DTM leader Maro Engel (+0.244) in the best Mercedes start in fourth and fifth place. “I think that was more or less the absolute maximum of what we had in our package,” says the satisfied Winward driver at ran.de. Especially since his brand colleagues did not finish at the front. “It can happen very quickly that you end up further back in the DTM,” the 40-year-old knows.
Exactly that happened to Engel’s brand colleague Lucas Auer, who slid into the gravel in the second corner on his fast lap and ultimately only salvaged 17th place. The Landgraf-Mercedes driver, who is second in the championship, was 0.568 seconds short, which shows how small the gaps were.
“Shot straight ahead”: Auer far back after off-track excursion
“Actually everything was fine, but I struggled so much and then I shot straight ahead,” the Austrian explains the incident at ran.de, where his tires collected a lot of dirt. After that, he had to “look for a track position again. That’s bad for me and for everyone behind, because it brings sand onto the track.”
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Nevertheless, he still managed to drive a reasonably good lap afterwards. It “didn’t feel so bad,” but was “quite far off-pace.” With his slip-up, Auer incurred the anger of Schubert-BMW driver Kelvin van der Linde, whose lap was affected by it.
“I had to abort my lap because of Auer, who went off in Turn 2,” says the German-South African, who despite the incident drove to seventh place with a 0.294-second deficit. “There was a lot of dirt on the track, of course” – and he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“I asked him what happened – and of course he didn’t do it on purpose. I’m just disappointed – I think it would have been the same the other way around,” says van der Linde. Auer shows understanding: “For everyone behind me, the lap was ruined.” That’s why he feels sorry not only for the Schubert-BMW driver, “but for everyone.”
Half-time champion Thiim again at the very back
Another bitter disappointment for Nicki Thiim after the completely botched Saturday – and despite a bit more boost pressure due to the BoP adjustment: The half-time champion, after starting 18th on Saturday, this time only managed 19th place with a 0.773-second deficit.
As a result, the Comtoyou-Aston-Martin driver, who has fallen back to third in the championship, faces an enormous challenge again in the race. Due to the three-place grid penalty for McLaren driver Ben Dörr after his collision with Jules Gounon on Saturday, Auer and Thiim move up to 16th and 18th place.
Not only Thiim is struggling in Oschersleben, but also his Comtoyou teammate Nicolas Baert: The son of team owner Jean-Michel Baert finished last in 20th place with a 0.897-second deficit.
The race will start as usual at 1:30 PM (all info on TV times, stream etc.) – and even rain is not completely ruled out. Due to the tire regulations, besides Wittmann, Winward-Mercedes driver Jules Gounon (10th), HRT-Ford driver Finn Wiebelhaus (14th), Abt-Lamborghini driver Marco Mapelli (17th), Ben Dörr (19th), and Baert should be on the radar after their retirements, as they have also saved a set of tires.
And on Sunday, two stops are scheduled, which means all three sets of tires will be used.
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