DTM Oschersleben: Lucas Auer dominates 2025 opening race

Landgraf Mercedes driver made an ideal begin to the 2025 DTM season, dominating Saturday’s race from pole place at Motorsport Enviornment Oschersleben.

“It is an ideal day,” mentioned a delighted Auer following the competition. “As soon as once more, I’ve to congratulate my Landgraf squad. They delivered the pitstop, delivered the set-up and got here again like this after a 12 months off – I’ve to take my hat off to them.”

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Jordan Pepper (Grasser-Lamborghini) got here near the AMG driver within the remaining laps, however in the end took second place. Winward Mercedes driver accomplished the rostrum. (Manthey-Porsche) completed fourth, adopted by (Winward-Mercedes) and Emil Frey Ferrari driver .

Ayhancan Guven (Manthey-Porsche) took seventh from (Schubert-BMW), reigning DTM champion (Abt-Lamborghini) and (Grasser-Lamborghini).

Mercedes driver Auer takes start-finish victory

Auer transformed his pole place right into a commanding lead and opened up a niche of greater than two seconds in only a few laps. The AMG driver dominated the motion on the entrance and was, at instances, half a second quicker than his rivals.

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needed to be the primary driver to pit after 20 minutes, however the Land Audi driver was a number of seconds too early, so the pitstop window had not but opened and the tyre change subsequently didn’t depend as a compulsory pitstop. He needed to are available once more later and in the end solely managed twenty third place.

Across the midway level of the race, the main trio Auer, Pepper and Preining had their necessary pitstops, coming into the pits bumper to bumper. With none of their mechanics making main errors, the order remained unchanged amongst these three.

Jules Gounon, who had pitted one lap earlier, caught up with the main trio because of his warmed-up tyres, however didn’t overtake third-placed Preining.

Overcut paves the way in which for Engel podium

Maro Engel accomplished his pitstop one lap later and elegantly used the overcut to quickly take the lead. However Auer and Pepper, who had considerably extra grip with their tyres as much as temperature, discovered their well beyond.

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Engel’s technique nonetheless paid off. The Winward Mercedes driver, who got here from fifth on the grid, moved as much as third place. The classification remained unchanged within the remaining laps, with no main battles for place.

Podium: Race winner Lucas Auer, Mercedes-AMG Crew Landgraf, second place Jordan Pepper, Grasser Racing Crew, third place Maro Engel, Mercedes-AMG Crew WINWARD, Klaus Landgraf, Mercedes-AMG Crew Landgraf.

Alexander Trienitz

Auer got here below growing strain from Pepper within the closing laps, however held his nerve and defended his lead with confidence. After a flawless efficiency, the Austrian lastly crossed the end line with a 0.641s lead.

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Ben Doerr (Doerr-McLaren) put in a strong efficiency and simply missed out on the highest 10 in eleventh place, whereas team-mate completed in twentieth place. was the best-placed HRT-Ford driver in fifteenth place and picked up the ultimate level, with the Indian finishing some outstanding overtaking manoeuvres, particularly within the early levels of the competition.

Rast retires from Schubert’s residence race

BMW driver Rene Rast suffered a debacle at Schubert’s residence race. “Sadly, I used to be instructed earlier than the beginning that I had misplaced engine energy,” mentioned the three-time DTM champion, who needed to park his M4 GT3 early.

“I seen that proper earlier than the beginning,” mentioned Rast, who was “undoubtedly 5 to 10km/h” slower on the straights and didn’t make any progress within the race earlier than finally retiring.

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Ferrari driver , who was quickest in qualifying earlier than being disqualified for being underweight, needed to begin from the again of the sphere and fought his means as much as 18th place.

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