Grasser Racing’s Bortolotti didn’t venture out on track until the final five minutes of the 20-minute session, opting to complete just a single run in the pole shootout.
However, the lack of track time didn’t appear to have any impact on his driving as he was immediately up to pace, setting the second-quickest lap time of the session behind Red Bull’s Felipe Fraga on his very first flying lap in qualifying.
DTM rookie Mikael Grenier then found over three tenths of a second to dislodge Bortolotti from the top and claim provisional pole for the expanded two-car GruppeM Mercedes team.
However, the Italian had even more pace up his sleeve and responded with a time of 1m39.678s on his final lap, clinching pole position by just 0.011s in his first qualifying session as a DTM full-timer.
The result also marked Lamborghini’s first-ever pole position in the DTM and follows Bortolotti securing a maiden podium for the Italian supercar maker as a wildcard entrant at Assen last year.
Grenier ended up second on the grid alongside Bortolotti, beating the Winward Mercedes of Lucas Auer by just 0.031s as 26 out of 29 drivers were covered by just over a second.
Fraga’s previous time of 1m39.738s put him fourth on the grid in the Red Bull-backed AF Corse Ferrari, just ahead of the Lamborghini of T3 Motorsport’s star signing Nicki Thiim.
Greiner’s teammate Maro Engel qualified sixth on his return to the DTM, setting a time of 1m39.933s in his GruppeM Mercedes.
Schubert Motorsport driver Sheldon van der Linde was the top qualifier for BMW in seventh, just ahead of the HRT Mercedes of Luca Stolz and reigning DTM champion Maximilian Gotz (Winward Mercedes).
Team Rosberg driver Nico Muller led qualifying after first runs but slumped to 10th at the finish, although he remained Audi’s best-placed driver with a time of 1m40.098s.
Qualifying just behind Muller was his former DTM rival and three-time champion Rene Rast, who led the charge for the three-car Abt Sportsline team in 11th.
Rast’s teammates Ricardo Feller and Kelvin van der Linde ended up 13th and 17th respectively, the duo separated by just 0.060s.
Porsche endured a difficult first qualifying session in the DTM despite being competitive in practice, with SSR Performance driver Dennis Olsen the marque’s top qualifier in 19th ahead of Team Bernhard 75’s Thomas Preining.
Factory Porsche driver Laurens Vanthoor fared even worse in the other SSR Performance 911 GT3-R, qualifying more than a second off the pace in 26th place.
Meanwhile, WRC legend Sebastien Loeb qualified in a respectable 21st place during his first weekend in the DTM with the Red Bull AF Corse team, posting a time that was 0.786s slower than pacesetter Bortolotti.
Portimao DTM - Saturday qualifying results:
| Cla | # | Driver | Car | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 63 |  Mirko Bortolotti | Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo | 1'39.678 | |
| 2 | 55 |  Mikael Grenier | Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 1'39.689 | 0.011 |
| 3 | 22 |  Lucas Auer | Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 1'39.719 | 0.041 |
| 4 | 74 |  Felipe Fraga | Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 | 1'39.738 | 0.060 |
| 5 | 95 |  Nicki Thiim | Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo | 1'39.929 | 0.251 |
| 6 | 88 |  Maro Engel | Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 1'39.933 | 0.255 |
| 7 | 31 |  Sheldon Van Der Linde | BMW M4 GT3 | 1'39.955 | 0.277 |
| 8 | 4 | Luca Stolz | Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 1'39.988 | 0.310 |
| 9 | 1 | Maximilian Götz | Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 1'40.090 | 0.412 |
| 10 | 51 |  Nico Müller | Audi R8 LMS Evo II | 1'40.098 | 0.420 |
| 11 | 33 | René Rast | Audi R8 LMS Evo II | 1'40.172 | 0.494 |
| 12 | 18 | Maximilian Buhk | Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 1'40.234 | 0.556 |
| 13 | 7 | Ricardo Feller | Audi R8 LMS Evo II | 1'40.277 | 0.599 |
| 14 | 85 | Clemens Schmid | Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo | 1'40.281 | 0.603 |
| 15 | 36 |  Arjun Maini | Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 1'40.284 | 0.606 |
| 16 | 11 | Marco Wittmann | BMW M4 GT3 | 1'40.312 | 0.634 |
| 17 | 3 | Kelvin van der Linde | Audi R8 LMS Evo II | 1'40.337 | 0.659 |
| 18 | 27 | David Schumacher | Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 1'40.360 | 0.682 |
| 19 | 94 |  Dennis Olsen | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 1'40.388 | 0.710 |
| 20 | 24 | Thomas Preining | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 1'40.392 | 0.714 |
| 21 | 37 |  Sébastien Loeb | Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 | 1'40.464 | 0.786 |
| 22 | 66 | Marius Zug | Audi R8 LMS Evo II | 1'40.521 | 0.843 |
| 23 | 12 |  Dev Gore | Audi R8 LMS Evo II | 1'40.536 | 0.858 |
| 24 | 25 | Philipp Eng | BMW M4 GT3 | 1'40.623 | 0.945 |
| 25 | 19 | Rolf Ineichen | Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo | 1'40.697 | 1.019 |
| 26 | 92 |  Laurens Vanthoor | Porsche 911 GT3 R | 1'40.770 | 1.092 |
| 27 | 26 |  Esmee Hawkey | Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo | 1'40.895 | 1.217 |
| 28 | 10 | Esteban Muth | BMW M4 GT3 | 1'41.030 | 1.352 |
| 29 | 6 | Alessio Deledda | Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo | 1'41.880 | 2.202 |
| View full results | |||||
