Mirko Bortolotti’s tempo within the SSR Lamborghini caught his DTM rivals unexpectedly at Spielberg.
Regardless of being hit with a collection of blows below the collection’ Steadiness of Efficiency system, Bortolotti was capable of comply with up his victory within the opening race with pole place and a fourth place within the second leg of the assembly.
That allowed him to grab the championship lead from Abt Audi rival Kelvin van der Linde, placing him on the entrance foot for this month’s title decider at Hockenheim
Whereas Bortolotti is broadly recognised as one of many quickest drivers in Lamborghini’s manufacturing facility roster, many felt that his Huracan GT3 EVO2 was barely hindered by the large ballast it was carrying – and the Italian, the truth is, had extra time in reserve.
In Sunday’s race, three-time DTM champion Rene Rast adopted Bortolotti within the opening stint, the place all drivers inside the highest 10 are required to start out on used qualifying tyres.
The Schubert BMW driver, who ultimately received the race after leaping Bortolotti within the pits, mentioned: “I caught up with Mirko, however as quickly as he noticed that I used to be coming, he elevated the tempo and out of the blue drove extraordinarily quick.
“He nonetheless had one thing in his pocket that he might have used to high it off. That is one thing we have to look into. It was very noticeable that Mirko was out of the blue using inexperienced [personal best] sectors though he was 65 kilos heavier than me the day earlier than.”
Mirko Bortolotti, SSR Efficiency
Picture by: Alexander Trienitz
Bortolotti was participating in Sunday’s race with 45kg of additional weight on his automotive in comparison with when he received on Saturday, a mix of mid-weekend BoP modifications and the extra success ballast because of his victory.
Rast’s BMW in the meantime had been given a 20kg break below the BoP, leading to an in a single day swing of 65kg between the 2 automobiles.
When the German driver handed Luca Engstler’s Grasser Lamborghini for second within the opening stint to place himself straight behind Bortolotti, the latter was capable of instantly improve his tempo to set instances within the 1m29.7s bracket.
Even Rast’s crew boss Torsten Schubert was shocked by Bortolotti’s tempo as a result of the Lamborghini was carrying a complete of 120kg ballast, making the automotive heavier at any level this season.
Furthermore, Spielberg will not be a monitor that significantly fits the Huracan.
“If I can nonetheless blow away with 120kg in it, i.e. one other 15 kilos after qualifying and the 20 kilos additional weight [under success ballast], then those that organise the occasion ought to take into consideration whether or not this would possibly actually be a case of overperformance,” he mentioned.
It wasn’t simply Bortolotti’s efficiency on Sunday that caught the eye of his rivals.
Mirko Bortolotti, SSR Efficiency Lamborghini Huracán EVO GT3
Picture by: Alexander Trienitz
The 34-year-old had additionally dominated the opening race of the weekend final Saturday after qualifying in fourth place.
The hour-long contest started on a moist monitor, which meant that drivers initially stayed away from kerbs that had been nonetheless moist. However a dry line rapidly started to appear, and your entire discipline switched to slick tyres throughout their obligatory pitstops.
Bortolotti was carefully adopted by Mercedes driver Maro Engel within the second stint, however was capable of fend him off to attain his first victory of the yr by 1.3s.
After the race, Bortolotti mentioned the second half of the race was like “a qualifying stint” and he “pushed from the primary to the final lap”.
Nonetheless, curiously, Engel disputed the feedback of his DTM rival.
“In the beginning of the stint all of us deviated from the best line, and in some unspecified time in the future I made a decision to take the best line in all places aside from Flip 3 [where the apex was still wet],” he instructed Motorsport.com’s sister title Motorsport-Whole.com.
“In different phrases, drive onto the skin of the kerb in Flip 1, such as you do within the dry, and brake on the best line in Flip 4. And I noticed that Mirko did not try this.
Podium: Race winner Mirko Bortolotti, SSR Efficiency
Picture by: Alexander Trienitz
“And he was nonetheless extraordinarily quick and pulled away from me on the finish. That made it clear to me on Saturday that Mirko could be very robust on Sunday together with his package deal [despite the added weight].”
He added: “When you have a look at the weekend and the modifications over the weekend, and see what efficiency was nonetheless there, then it’s important to come to the conclusion that they merely managed it on Saturday.”
There have been additionally solutions that Bortolotti had intentionally slowed down on Sunday to complete outdoors the highest three and keep away from successful ballast within the Hockenheim finale. With van der Linde ending one place behind him in fifth, Bortolotti nonetheless managed to extend his factors lead over the South African.
“That is a tactic,” mentioned a paddock insider who didn’t need to be named. “He intentionally took it out, in any other case he would have received the race. And everybody would have seen that the Lamborghini BoP was unsuitable.”
Nonetheless, that principle could also be extensive of the mark, as Bortolotti braked too late on his out-lap and ran extensive at Flip 2, displaying he was certainly pushing the automotive near its restrict.
Nonetheless, the BoP categorisation of the Huracan will stay a speaking level because the DTM returns to Germany for the all-important finale on 19-20 October.
