DTM Hockenheim: Porsche takes pole as Engel challenges Preining

Drama in the final DTM qualifying at Hockenheim - and once again the weather plays the leading role: sudden rain throws the teams' strategies into disarray. Pole goes to a Porsche driver, but not DTM leader Thomas Preining: Land Porsche rookie Bastian Buus secures the best starting position in 1:36.923 ahead of Manthey brand colleague Ricardo Feller, who was just six thousandths short.

"Honestly, I didn't expect it," the Porsche youngster from Denmark tells ran.de, surprised after his first DTM pole. "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."

The favoured Porsche driver Preining could manage only seventh place, 0.306 seconds down, which makes the title decider exciting. That is because Winward Mercedes driver Maro Engel ended up third, gaining one point in the championship and now 21 points behind. He was 0.128 seconds off pole. Engel's Winward team-mate Jules Gounon (+0.139) was fourth.

Maro Engel believes in title chance after third on the grid

"Good qualifying lap, the car was good," Engel tells ran.de, basically satisfied with his qualifying result. "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 that a win is now necessary to still snatch a second title from rival Preining at the finish line. "We're going fully on the attack," the AMG driver announces. "We believe in our chances, we're trying to win the race and then we'll see."

But what does arch-rival and title favourite Preining say about seventh place? "It could have gone a lot worse," he says to ran.de, sounding positive. "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."

Preining also says he has "the least pressure, so everything is fine". But he does not want to call it an easy starting position: "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."

On the third row are the two Emil Frey Ferrari team-mates Matteo Cairoli (+0.154) and Thierry Vermeulen (+0.273), who also placed ahead of Preining. Marco Mapelli starts Sunday's race from eighth position, with the Abt Lamborghini driver racing as a lone fighter after team-mate Luca Engstler's accident on Saturday.

Marco Wittmann is "not at all" satisfied

Timo Glock (Dörr McLaren) rounds off his mixed DTM season with ninth on the grid (+0.327), followed by team-mate Ben Dörr (+0.502) in tenth position. Saturday winner Lucas Auer could do no better than 12th in his Landgraf Mercedes, 0.646 seconds down.

But things went even worse for Preining's first challenger in the title fight: Marco Wittmann was only 16th in his Schubert BMW, 0.863 seconds down, and is understandably "not at all" satisfied. "We were without a chance," says the second-placed driver overall. "In principle, it was already apparent in yesterday's race that we don't have the pace."

The German, who is 20 points behind Preining in the championship, must now hope for a miracle in the race, which does not start until 16:30 CEST, to somehow drive to the front and keep his title chance alive. At the moment, however, everything points to a second title for Manthey Porsche driver Thomas Preining.