Rookie Sheldon van der Linde stunned the DTM paddock to take his maiden pole position in what is only his second race weekend in the series. The BMW Team RBM driver set a lap time of 1 minute 21.560 seconds, narrowly beating Audi Sport Team Rosberg ace René Rast by six-thousandths of a second.
The South African set the time early in the session, and it would not be matched.
“Honestly, I still cannot believe it,” announced the 19 year old, “I am sure when we stand on the grid later in P1 it will be more realistic.”
The BMW driver impressed in his opening race weekend at Hockenheim, and was unfortunate to not score points in the first race at Zolder after extensively running in the top five.
“My fourth race in DTM, and already a pole position, super super happy!
“Thanks so much to my team, congrats to Philipp [Eng] as well, it’s great to have the team up there in the top three.”
It has been a BMW lockout at Zolder so far, with Team RMG’s Marco Wittmann taking pole for race one before Team RMR driver Philipp Eng stormed to his maiden DTM win.
“It’s the home race for the team as well.
“Nothing more to say, just super super happy!”