The expected rain arrived at the Saturday qualification of the DTM in Zandvoort-and flushed the Grasser-Lamborghini team to the top: Jordan Pepper won his first DTM pole with a 1: 42.194 and prevailed against Winward-Mercedes-Pilot Maro Engel, which was only 0.008 seconds.
Pepper’s joy was particularly great after it was not perfectly running on Friday with his tire place and the not entirely optimal Lamborghini pace in qualifying for Sunday. “We saw the rain – and that was our chance,” he says at ran.de.
Pepper drove his best time early in the session – and although the route dried, nobody could push it off the top. “The tires were already gone,” he explains why he could no longer add up.
Engstler about strong performance: “In the dry no chance”
Winward-Mercedes-Pilot Engel, who is known to be always strong in the rain, also didn’t bother the changeable weather after twelve in qualifying on Friday. “Was a bit tough yesterday,” he says at ran.de. “In this respect, I wasn’t sad when I looked out of the window this morning.”
The second Grasser-Lamborghini ended up in third place with Luca Engstler (+0.017), which shows that the Austrian troop apparently met the tire pressures. “If you have two cars in the TOP 3, it shows that the boys really put us two rockets,” says Engstler at Ran.de.
And hopes that the changeable weather continues: “Unfortunately, we have no chance of this weekend in the dry – and being here in the wet is great.
Strategy poker: drive through or new sentence rain tires?
Fourth became Land-Audi pilot Ricardo Feller (+0,122). In the third row, Manthey-Porsche-Pilot Ayhancan Güven (+0.231), who once came off the route, and Landgraf-Mercedes pilot Lucas Auer (+0.256) are five and six. Gerhard Berger’s nephew remains the lead in the DTM overall ranking.
Local hero Morris Schuring, who put his Manthey Porsche in seventh place, and team-mate Thomas Preining rank behind. The Austrian did not have a second set of rain tires raised.
“We were really difficult, somehow never had grip and decided to stay outside,” explains the ex-champion at ran.de. In the end, the result would probably have been the same even when changing tires, he believes.
Abt-Lamborghinis not in the top 10, BMW without chance
Once again the Abt-Lamborghini pilots landed: Champion Mirko Bortolotti (+0,449) had to make up with eleven, Nicki Thiim was only 16. It was even worse for the Schubert BMW pilots that were so strong on Friday: Rene Rast (+1.034) was 18, Marco Wittmann was shown in the case of rain the M4 GT3 Evo still does not run.
“We have never been strong in the rain,” confirms Rast, who had won his 26 Pole the day before, and that Bernd Schneider braked the record final. “I think it’s less due to the car, but simply because of the combination as it is now.”
No wonder he hopes for a dry route in the race. “If it rains, we probably have no chance,” he explains. “We simply lack the mechanical grip, i.e. the grip in the curves.”
Rast explains why you can’t cope in the rain
The BMW is a car that generates the lap time with the top speed on the straight. “The top speed on the straight is not as decisive in the rain as the cornering speed. So in the rain we are always a bit back with the BMW.”
The two Dörr McLaren pilots also did not end up in the forefront: Ben Dörr, who was surprised so far, came to 19th place with 1.159 seconds, Timo Glock was 1.205 seconds behind 21.
The weather is now becoming a big hit, as the proximity to the sea makes a forecast almost impossible.