{"id":1836,"date":"2026-08-15T09:27:47","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T09:27:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/?p=1836"},"modified":"2026-08-15T09:27:56","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T09:27:56","slug":"cairoli-claims-pole-at-the-nurburgring-as-ferrari-denies-preining-in-thrilling-q1-session","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/cairoli-claims-pole-at-the-nurburgring-as-ferrari-denies-preining-in-thrilling-q1-session\/","title":{"rendered":"Cairoli Claims Pole at the N\u00fcrburgring as Ferrari Denies Preining in Thrilling Q1 Session"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>NURBURGRING &#8211; <\/strong>Matteo Cairoli put on a absolute masterclass in Saturday morning\u2019s Qualifying 1 at the N\u00fcrburgring, storming to pole position for Race 1 in his Emil Frey Racing Ferrari 296 GT3. The Italian snatched top spot in the closing moments with a blistering lap of 1:25.345, setting the stage for a crucial fight back in his championship campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cairoli\u2019s late charge edged out Manthey EMA\u2019s Thomas Preining by a razor-thin margin of just 0.036 seconds. The Austrian Porsche driver, who entered the weekend riding high on strong form, was denied his third consecutive pole position but secures a front-row start for Saturday afternoon\u2019s race.<sup><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>A Tight Top Five Across Five Brands<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The 20-minute session on the 3.629 km sprint layout delivered incredible parity across the field, with five different manufacturers populating the top five positions, separated by under two tenths of a second.<sup><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lucas Auer put his Landgraf Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 in third place (+0.078s), picking up a valuable championship point in the process.<sup><\/sup> He will share the second row with Schubert Motorsport\u2019s Marco Wittmann, who proved to be the quickest BMW driver in fourth (+0.105s).<sup><\/sup> Ben D\u00f6rr delivered an impressive effort in fifth, placing his D\u00f6rr Motorsport McLaren 720S GT3 firmly in the mix (+0.179s).<sup><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Championship Implications<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Current points leader Maro Engel brought his Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG home in sixth position (+0.205s), keeping himself well within striking distance of the podium.<sup><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It was a far tougher session, however, for fellow title contender Nicki Thiim.<sup><\/sup> The Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin driver struggled to find clean space and ultimate pace, missing out on the top ten to qualify down in 11th (+0.318s).<sup><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Eye on the Lights<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cairoli\u2019s dominant session was briefly overshadowed as race control placed his final lap under investigation for potentially driving too slowly in Sector 3 during build-up laps, though his benchmark time stood through the post-session checks.<sup><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With track conditions holding dry and warm in the Eifel, the field now turns its attention to Race 1, which lights up at 13:30 CEST.<sup><\/sup> Cairoli will lead the 20-plus car pack down into the heavy braking zone of the AMG Arena, with the tight layout promising relentless action from the opening lap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/DTM_Q1_NBR_Results.pdf\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/DTM_Q1_NBR_Results.pdf\">RESULTS<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NURBURGRING &#8211; Matteo Cairoli put on a absolute masterclass in Saturday morning\u2019s Qualifying 1 at the N\u00fcrburgring, storming to pole position for Race 1 in his Emil Frey Racing Ferrari 296 GT3. The Italian snatched top spot in the closing moments with a blistering lap of 1:25.345, setting the stage for a crucial fight back [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1838,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[88],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dtm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1836"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1839,"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1836\/revisions\/1839"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}