Frenchman Franck Perera claimed the first pole position of the season at the DTM opener in Oschersleben on Saturday. The works driver set a best time of 1:21.370 at the wheel of the his #94 SSR Performance Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2 in Qualifying this morning, and will start the first race of the season later today from pole.
Like many of his fellow drivers, the Frenchman had waited a long time before getting stuck into a fast lap. It was only shortly before the end of the session that the Lamborghini driver got the top time.
“I’m really happy. It was an intense first qualifying session and difficult to get the tyres into the optimum temperature range. I managed it, and despite the narrow track and the heavy traffic, particularly towards the end, I managed to find a free lap. The team did a great job and I want to win the race. And pole position is the best place from which to do that,” said Franck Perera, who as the first winner of the Pirelli Pole Position Award, and three championship points.
Next to the Frenchman on the front row of the grid will be IMSA Action Express GTP driver Jack Aitken, who collected two points his performance. The Briton, representing Emil Frey Racing in the Ferrari 296 GT3 was just 0.018 seconds slower than the pole-sitter.
Perera’s teammate at SSR Performance, Mirko Bortolotti, will start from third place after his best time, and in turn claimed a single point.
Outside of the points paying positions, Grass Racing’s Mick Wishofer will start alongside Bortolotti on row two. He made it three Lamborghinis in the top four.
The best Audi driver was Abt Sportsline’s Ricardo Feller, who will start fifth, alongside the best of the Porsches, the Manthey 911 GT3 R 992 of Thomas Preining. Remakrably, the pair set an identical lap time of 1:21.493, but because the Porsche works driver set his time after the Swiss driver, he will start the race behind.
Overall it was a very tight session on the twisty German circuit, with just 0.737 seconds separating the top 24.
The first championship race in Oschersleben gets underway at 13:30 CEST later today.
Featured image courtesy of DTM
