Manthey Porsche driver Thomas Preining gained the DTM season opener on the Crimson Bull Ring in Spielberg.
The Austrian, who began from third on the grid, benefited from a botched pit cease by polesitter Maro Engel within the Winward Mercedes to take the spot.
Landgraf driver and native hero Lucas Auer completed second, whereas Engel got here house in third to finish an all-Mercedes podium. DTM rookie Bastian Buus (Land Porsche) took a robust fourth place in his debut, adopted by Tom Kalender (Landgraf Mercedes) and Schubert BMW driver Marco Wittmann.
Timo Glock completed in seventh place along with his Dorr-McLaren, however nonetheless has cause to fret. The German needed to full a penalty lap within the second half of the race after his tyres spun through the pit cease whereas the McLaren was nonetheless jacked up.
Based on the race stewards’ preliminary impression, the penalty lap was not executed accurately, which is why the Dorr driver might face an additional sanction after the race. Arjun Maini (HRT Ford), Matteo Cairoli (Emil Frey Ferrari) and Riccardo Feller (Manthey Porsche) full the highest 10.
Security automobile part after early Dorr accident
After the beginning, the anticipated chaos within the first nook did not materialise: Engel confidently transformed his pole place into the lead, adopted by Preining and Auer. Behind them, an intense battle for the remaining positions was already underway.
At the beginning of the second lap, a collision occurred behind the main group between Ben Dorr and Buus. Dorr was pressured extensive within the first nook and needed to brake barely to keep up management of his automobile.
Buus was caught off guard and evenly clipped the German’s rear, inflicting him to spin, slide off the monitor and crash backwards into the barrier. Dorr escaped unhurt, however his McLaren was broken, necessitating the deployment of the protection automobile.
Battle between Schubert BMW teammates
On the subsequent restart, Engel defended his lead, whereas Preining and Auer engaged in a fierce battle for second place, which the Manthey Porsche driver finally gained. Till the pit cease window opened, there have been quite a few thrilling battles within the midfield.
The 2 Schubert BMW team-mates, Wittmann and Kelvin van der Linde, have been battling for eighth place, even making slight contact within the course of. “That was shifting underneath braking,” Wittmann complained loudly over the workforce radio afterwards.
Maro Engel loses lead throughout pit cease
After the pit cease window opened, Glock, Feller, Finn Wiebelhaus (HRT-Ford) and Luca Engstler (Abt Lamborghini) have been the primary 4 drivers to pit for tyres. Within the following laps, extra drivers headed for the pits, with Preining among the many first from the main group.
Engel got here into the pits two laps later, however the pitstop was something however optimum: as a result of the left rear wheel couldn’t be hooked up instantly, the polesitter stood considerably longer than the competitors and consequently misplaced his result in Preining.
Auer’s pit cease, which adopted two laps after Engel’s, additionally took too lengthy, so the Austrian initially fell again to 3rd place behind Preining and Jules Gounon (Winward Mercedes) after which needed to defend himself towards Engel’s assaults.
One other security automobile interval, triggered by Comtoyou driver Nicolas Baert who needed to retire his Aston Martin with suspension injury, introduced calm to the race and bunched the sphere collectively once more after all of the pit stops have been accomplished. The following restart, nonetheless, introduced no adjustments on the entrance.
Gounon drops off the rostrum shortly earlier than the top
Preining maintained his lead forward of Gounon, Auer, and Engel. Till just some minutes earlier than the top of the race, every thing appeared set for this ultimate end result, however then catastrophe struck Mercedes: Second-placed Gounon needed to retire his “Mamba” prematurely attributable to surprising suspension injury.
Auer sensed his alternative.The Austrian was scorching on his compatriot’s tail within the ultimate laps, searching for a approach to overtake Manthey’s “Grello” Porsche. Nevertheless, this by no means got here to move, as van der Linde needed to retire his Schubert BMW shortly earlier than the top attributable to an absence of oil strain. This triggered the third security automobile interval, with Preining occurring to win the race.
The Lamborghini drivers ran their very own race and completed in the back of the sphere with the brand new Temerario. Mirko Bortolotti (Grasser Lamborghini) was the highest-placed driver for the Italian model, ending in thirteenth place total and thus accumulating three factors.
The second race of the 2026 DTM season takes place on Sunday, beginning at 1:30 p. The beginning grid will likely be decided with a separate qualifying on Sunday morning.
Race outcomes:
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