Schubert BMW driver Marco Wittmann picked up the place he left off within the final race on the Nürburgring: the two-time champion celebrates his second win of the season on Saturday on the Sachsenring and cuts his deficit within the DTM total standings to simply 14 factors.
“I knew we had a very good beginning place with pole place, however nonetheless it was extraordinarily tough,” Wittmann tells ProSieben. “I do know the monitor is just not a monitor the place you possibly can overtake simply. So it was necessary to run the appropriate technique, have a very good pit cease and mainly make no errors all through the race.”
The competitors really had the higher technique, as Jules Gounon (Winward Mercedes) initially took the lead after the pit cease. “It was a super-fair duel, the place we gave one another room,” provides the BMW driver, who benefited from a small mistake by his rival and was capable of retake the lead.
“It was not a race to handle, it actually was about going flat out each lap and actually not permitting your self any errors. I feel we didn’t have the quickest race automobile as we speak, however due to the monitor traits we have been capable of keep in entrance.” Gounon finishes second ultimately, lower than half a second behind Wittmann.
Thomas Preining (Manthey Porsche) is third. “Sure, a very good day for us,” says the Austrian, who’s on the rostrum for the fifth time in a row, at ProSieben. “Tremendous, I am actually happy. It actually may have gone higher, however we have been lacking a bit one thing. Principally a strong end result, necessary for the championship.”
Schubert BMW driver Kelvin van der Linde comes house fourth, carefully adopted by Maro Engel (Winward Mercedes) and Matteo Cairoli (Emil Frey Ferrari). Mirko Bortolotti (Grasser Lamborghini) holds off Nicki Thiim’s Comtoyou Aston Martin. Thierry Vermeulen (Emil Frey Ferrari) and Ben Dörr (Dörr McLaren) full the highest 10.
Landgraf Mercedes driver Lucas Auer, who needed to begin from the again of the sphere after his accident in qualifying, at the least makes it to eleventh place and thereby limits the injury. However, Auer has dropped to fifth place within the total standings, now already 36 factors off the championship lead.
Wittmann defends pole amid chaotic begin
Polesitter Marco Wittmann held the lead in the beginning of the race, whereas second-placed Thomas Preining fell again to fourth. Each Jules Gounon and Kelvin van der Linde moved previous the Manthey Porsche.
Additional again, in the meantime, there have been a number of duels and collisions, because of which Bastian Buus’s Land Porsche ended up beached within the gravel. The 2 Abt Lamborghinis of Marco Mapelli and Luca Engstler, in addition to Timo Glock (Dörr McLaren), have been additionally concerned within the incident. The security automobile needed to be deployed.
However Buus was fortunate: the Dane was allowed to proceed, although he had obtained outdoors help, as a result of within the stewards’ view he was to not blame for the incident. Nonetheless, the Land Porsche driver needed to pit shortly afterwards due to a sluggish puncture.
However whereas the Dane was at the least capable of proceed, Engstler and Mapelli needed to park their automobiles. “I do not know precisely what occurred. I want to take a look at it,” Engstler tells ProSieben. “I really had a very good begin, and a very good first nook. I obtained via there cleanly.”
“After which there was one way or the other contact in entrance of me, a variety of mud, [I] was then on the within,” the Abt Lamborghini driver continues. “After which a automobile spun in entrance of me, hit me and from then on I used to be only a passenger.”
On the restart after the race’s solely safety-car interval, there have been no modifications on the head of the sphere: Wittmann stayed within the lead, forward of Gounon, van der Linde and Preining. By that time Auer had already fought his method as much as sixteenth place.
Spherical two within the feud between Thiim and Kalender
Within the midfield, a well-known duel continued, which had already gathered momentum on the Nürburgring: Nicki Thiim hit the rear of Tom Kalender’s Landgraf Mercedes and pushed him off the monitor, permitting a number of drivers to get previous. Race management ordered a place swap, that means Thiim needed to drop again from eighth to thirteenth. As well as, the Aston Martin driver was given his first warning of the season.
On the entrance, Wittmann and Gounon pulled away from the remainder of the sphere: Kelvin van der Linde held up the sphere in third place, that means the hole to the 2 leaders had already grown to greater than 5 seconds by the point the pit-stop window opened.
The South African was among the many first drivers to pit, together with Vermeulen, HRT Ford driver Arjun Maini, Manthey Porsche driver Ricardo Feller and Kalender. That disproved the idea that the Schubert BMW driver needed to again up the sphere with a view to assist his team-mate Wittmann on the entrance.
Jules Gounon will get a style of the lead, however …
Wittmann got here in for his cease on lap 16, whereas second-placed Gounon stayed out for yet another lap. That was sufficient for the Winward Mercedes driver to briefly take the lead. Shortly afterwards, nonetheless, the polesitter was capable of make the most of a small lock-up within the first nook to efficiently counterattack.
Preining additionally benefited from the pit cease: the Manthey Porsche driver had additionally beforehand overtaken Kelvin van der Linde with a later pit cease after which managed to shut the hole to the main duo. From that time on, the highest three have been bunched carefully collectively on the entrance.
Whereas the highest three have been largely in settlement, issues have been all of the wilder behind them: Thiim and Vermeulen fought a duel for ninth place, whereas Engel and Cairoli have been slowly capable of shut in on fourth-placed van der Linde. Ricardo Feller’s Manthey Porsche was additionally badly battered after a number of collisions.
Auer, who had taken the lead within the meantime, got here in for his tyre change shortly earlier than the pit-stop window closed because the final driver to take action. That dropped the Austrian again to sixteenth place, however he had the freshest tyres for the closing phases and used them to struggle his method as much as eleventh place.
Preining additional extends DTM total lead
Simon Connor Primm takes the chequered flag on his DTM debut within the Seyffarth Audi in fifteenth place, leaving each Nicolas Baert (Comtoyou Aston Martin) and Finn Wiebelhaus (HRT Ford) behind him. Maximilian Paul (Grasser Lamborghini) doesn’t attain the end on his comeback after the intense Norisring accident.
Preining, who had already taken over the general lead with second place in qualifying, additional extends the highest spot with third place within the race. The Austrian now has a six-point lead over second-placed Engel. Wittmann has lower his deficit to 14 factors. Thiim (-30 factors) is fourth.
The second DTM race on the Sachsenring begins on Sunday. The beginning positions for the third-to-last race of the 2026 season might be decided beforehand within the second qualifying session.
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