Thomas Preining confirms his supremacy in Oschersleben: The “Grello” Porsche driver secures pole position in Sunday’s qualifying as well after pole and victory on Saturday, with a time of 1:22.400 – once again ahead of Abt Lamborghini driver Luca Engstler, who was 0.105 seconds short and had already finished second on Saturday.
“A super weekend – the car was fantastic again, just like yesterday and on Friday,” Preining is delighted with the latest top result at ran.de. “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, because the Manthey driver has to cope in the race with the 20 kilograms of success ballast he gets in the car for his win on Saturday. But the strength of the Austrian’s performance is again shown by the positions of the other Porsche drivers: teammate Ricardo Feller (+0.319) was eleventh, Land Porsche driver Bastian Buus (+0.387) came in 13th.
BMW success thanks to ailing Wittmann – and tire advantage!
There was also a sense of achievement for Marco Wittmann, who is suffering from a gastrointestinal illness, as he positioned himself in third place, +0.150 seconds back, after retiring on Saturday, thereby ensuring a good BMW result at Schubert’s home event.´
“The car already felt good yesterday, and now – also with the BoP changes – we can run up front,” he says, referring to the changed Balance of Performance (BoP), which once again allows the BMW M4 GT3 Evo more boost pressure. The German has an additional ace up his sleeve because of his retirement, as in Oschersleben all drivers have only three sets of tires available for both race days.
“Of course I have a tire advantage in the race because of my retirement yesterday,” says the two-time champion at ran.de. “I hope we can make use of that.”
DTM leader Engel best Mercedes-AMG driver
Starting in fourth and fifth are HRT Ford driver Arjun Maini (+0.222) and DTM leader Maro Engel (+0.244) in the best Mercedes. “I think that was more or less the absolute maximum of what we had in our package,” the satisfied Winward driver says at ran.de. Especially since his brand colleagues did not end up at the front. “In the DTM, it can happen very quickly that you find yourself further back,” the 40-year-old knows.
That is exactly what happened to Engel’s brand colleague Lucas Auer, who slid into the gravel in the second corner on his fast lap and in the end could only salvage 17th place. The Landgraf Mercedes driver, who lies second in the championship, was 0.568 seconds down, which shows how small the gaps were.
“I shot straight on”: Auer far back after off
“Actually everything was right, but I struggled so much and then I shot straight on,” the Austrian explains the incident at ran.de, during which his tires picked up a lot of dirt. After that he had to “look for track position again. That’s bad for me and for everyone who was behind, because it brings sand onto the track.”
Nevertheless, he still managed to drive a reasonably decent lap afterwards. It “didn’t feel that bad at all,” but was “pretty far off the pace.” With his off, Auer drew the ire of Schubert BMW driver Kelvin van der Linde, whose lap was compromised as a result.
Auer incident hampers Kelvin van der Linde
“I had to abort my lap because of Auer, who went off in Turn 2,” says the South African, who despite the incident drove to seventh place, 0.294 seconds back. “Of course there was a lot of dirt on the track – and I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“I asked him what happened – and of course he doesn’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 is understanding: “For everyone who was behind me, the lap was ruined.” That’s why he feels sorry not only for the Schubert BMW driver, “but for everyone.”
Halfway champion Thiim again right at the back
There was another bitter disappointment for Nicki Thiim after his completely botched Saturday – and that despite a little more boost pressure due to the BoP adjustment: After starting 18th on Saturday, the halfway champion this time managed only 19th place, 0.773 seconds back.
As a result, the Comtoyou Aston Martin driver, who has fallen back to third in the championship, once again faces an enormous challenge in the race. Due to the grid penalty for McLaren driver Ben Dörr after the collision with Jules Gounon on Saturday, which drops him three grid places, Auer and Thiim move up to 16th and 18th places.
It is not only Thiim who is struggling in Oschersleben, but also his Comtoyou teammate Nicolas Baert: The son of team owner Jean-Michel Baert finished last, only 20th, 0.897 seconds back.
Due to the tire regulations, in addition to Wittmann, you should also keep an eye on Winward Mercedes driver Jules Gounon (10th), HRT Ford driver Finn Wiebelhaus (14th), Abt Lamborghini driver Marco Mapelli (17th), Ben Dorr (19th) and Baert after their retirements in Sunday’s race, because they have also saved a set of tires.
And on Sunday, two stops are on the agenda, which is why all three sets of tires will be used.
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
– The Motorsport.com Team
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: motorsport.com
