Buus Claims Surprise DTM Pole at Hockenheim as Title Race Tightens

Drama unfolded in the final DTM qualifying session at Hockenheim as sudden rainfall disrupted team strategies. Porsche rookie Bastian Buus secured his maiden series pole position with a 1:36.923, edging out Manthey team-mate Ricardo Feller by a mere six thousandths of a second.

“Honestly, I didn’t expect it,” the Danish driver told ran.de after the session. “It has been a season full of highs and lows, and it is fantastic that we have now finally put everything together and set the car up in the optimum window for the final qualifying.”

Championship leader Thomas Preining could only manage seventh, 0.306 seconds adrift, injecting fresh tension into the title decider. Winward Mercedes driver Maro Engel qualified third, 0.128 seconds off the pace, gaining a championship point to sit 21 points behind Preining. Engel’s team-mate Jules Gounon rounded out the top four.

Engel Targets Victory to Keep Title Hopes Alive

“Good qualifying lap, the car was good,” Engel told ran.de. “It’s a shame it wasn’t enough for the very front or at least second place. But yes, good, solid starting position.”

The 41-year-old knows a victory is essential to overhaul Preining. “We’re going fully on the attack,” the AMG driver declared. “We believe in our chances, we’re trying to win the race and then we’ll see.”

Preining remained pragmatic about his grid slot. “It could have gone a lot worse,” he said. “We had a small problem in the warm-up, then the tyres weren’t really in the window, but fundamentally with seventh place we still have a result we can work with.”

The Austrian added he has “the least pressure, so everything is fine,” though refused to underestimate the challenge: “Nothing is relaxed in the DTM, and first you have to actually reach the finish. It will be a tough afternoon, we have to get through cleanly, make no mistakes.”

Emil Frey Ferrari duo Matteo Cairoli and Thierry Vermeulen will start from the third row in fifth and sixth respectively, both ahead of Preining. Marco Mapelli lines up eighth in the Abt Lamborghini, racing alone after team-mate Luca Engstler’s Saturday accident.

Timo Glock qualified ninth for Dörr McLaren, with team-mate Ben Dörr tenth. Saturday’s race winner Lucas Auer could only manage 12th in the Landgraf Mercedes.

The session proved disastrous for Preining’s nearest title rival, Marco Wittmann, who qualified 16th in the Schubert BMW, 0.863 seconds off the pace. “We were without a chance,” admitted the German, 20 points behind in the standings. “In principle, it was already apparent in yesterday’s race that we don’t have the pace.”

Wittmann now requires a miracle in the race, scheduled to start at 16:30 CEST, to keep his championship aspirations alive. As it stands, a second title for Manthey Porsche driver Thomas Preining appears the most likely outcome.

Source link