Having already topped the two practice sessions on Friday, Engel was also unbeaten in the 20-minute pole shootout on Saturday morning as he clinched the top spot with a time of 1m32.585s in his Landgraf Mercedes AMG GT3.
It was Porsche’s Dennis Olsen who first broke Engel’s practice benchmark, setting a time of 1m33.279s with 10 minutes to go as Manthey EMA elected to complete its flying laps early on.
Olsen’s team-mate Thomas Preining then went on top with a 1m33.075s, but it wasn’t until the final three minutes of the session that a driver broke the 1m33s barrier, with Jusuf Owega lapping the circuit in 1m32.945s.
However, Owega’s reign on top turned out to be short-lived, with his more experienced team-mate Engel finding another four tenths to snatch provisional pole.
Engel wasn’t to be usurped from the top of the times, with the 37-year-old claiming his first pole since the Red Bull Ring round last year.
Reigning champion van der Linde provisionally qualified second in his Schubert BMW M4 GT3 with a time that was just 0.030s down on Engel, but he remains under investigation for impeding the German driver in qualifying.
Second place nevertheless respected a marked turnaround for van der Linde and BMW after the South African qualified 19th and 15th for the two races at Oschersleben.
Two-time DTM champion Marco Wittmann validated the improved pace of the BMW by qualifying third in his Project 1-run M4, albeit 0.297s down on Engel’s chart-topping time.
Works Lamborghini driver Franck Perera ended up just 0.001s adrift of Wittmann in fourth for SSR Performance, less than a month after converting pole position into a first win for the Italian manufacturer.
Albert Costa, who is replacing Jack Aitken at Emil Frey Racing Ferrari this weekend, qualified a strong fifth on his debut, beating the second SSR Lamborghini of Mirko Bortolotti by 0.008s.
Owega’s time of 1m32.945s was good enough for seventh at the end, as he beat the top Audis of Abt driver Kelvin van der Linde and Orange1 team’s Patric Niederhauser.
Preining ended up 10th, ensuring all six manufacturers were represented inside the top 10.
Winward Mercedes driver Lucas Auer qualified 0.543s off the pace in 12th behind the Bernhard Porsche of Ayhancan Guven, while HRT Mercedes’ Luca Stolz was even further off the pace in 14th place.
New BMW factory driver Dries Vanthoor, who has been called by Schubert to replace Rene Rast while the three-time champion is competing in Formula E, qualified 16th in his maiden outing in the DTM.
The first 23 of the 27 drivers were separated by just a second in what a tightly-contested qualifying session on the DTM’s first visit to Zandvoort since 2018.
DTM Zandvoort: Qualifying results:
| Cla | # | Driver | Car | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 48 |  Maro Engel |
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 1'32.585 | |
| 2 | 1 |  Sheldon Van Der Linde |
BMW M4 GT3 | 1'32.615 | 0.030 |
| 3 | 11 | Marco Wittmann |
BMW M4 GT3 | 1'32.882 | 0.297 |
| 4 | 94 | Frank Perera | Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 2 | 1'32.883 | 0.298 |
| 5 | 14 |  Jack Aitken |
Ferrari 296 GT3 | 1'32.926 | 0.341 |
| 6 | 92 |  Mirko Bortolotti |
Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 2 | 1'32.934 | 0.349 |
| 7 | 84 | Jusuf Owega | Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 1'32.945 | 0.360 |
| 8 | 3 | Kelvin van der Linde |
Audi R8 LMS Evo II | 1'32.993 | 0.408 |
| 9 | 83 |  Patric Niederhauser |
Audi R8 LMS Evo II | 1'33.053 | 0.468 |
| 10 | 91 |  Thomas Preining |
Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) | 1'33.075 | 0.490 |
| 11 | 24 |  Ayhancan Güven |
Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) | 1'33.084 | 0.499 |
| 12 | 22 | Lucas Auer |
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 1'33.128 | 0.543 |
| 13 | 8 | Luca Engstler |
Audi R8 LMS Evo II | 1'33.137 | 0.552 |
| 14 | 4 | Luca Stolz |
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 1'33.162 | 0.577 |
| 15 | 40 | Mattia Drudi |
Audi R8 LMS Evo II | 1'33.166 | 0.581 |
| 16 | 33 | René Rast |
BMW M4 GT3 | 1'33.172 | 0.587 |
| 17 | 7 | Ricardo Feller |
Audi R8 LMS Evo II | 1'33.258 | 0.673 |
| 18 | 90 |  Dennis Olsen |
Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) | 1'33.279 | 0.694 |
| 19 | 27 | David Schumacher |
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 1'33.298 | 0.713 |
| 20 | 75 | Laurin Heinrich |
Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) | 1'33.333 | 0.748 |
| 21 | 36 |  Arjun Maini |
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 1'33.334 | 0.749 |
| 22 | 9 | Tim Heinemann | Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) | 1'33.459 | 0.874 |
| 23 | 19 | Mick Wishofer |
Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 2 | 1'33.493 | 0.908 |
| 24 | 63 | Clemens Schmid |
Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 2 | 1'33.664 | 1.079 |
| 25 | 99 | Christian Engelhart |
Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) | 1'33.712 | 1.127 |
| 26 | 69 | Thierry Vermeulen | Ferrari 296 GT3 | 1'34.129 | 1.544 |
| 27 | 6 | Alessio Deledda |
Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 2 | 1'35.406 | 2.821 |
| View full results | |||||
