Thomas Preining wins a crazy DTM race on the Norisring: The Manthey-Porsche Pilot, who went into the race from the sixth place to start, took the lead thanks to a perfect strategy and referred the two Emil-Frey pilots Jack Aitken and Polesetter Thierry Valllen to the places.
Maro Engel (Winward-Mercedes) achieved fourth, followed by HRT-Ford pilot Arjun Maini and the third Ferrari pilot Ben Green. Rene Rast (Schubert-BMW) does some damage limitation with seventh place.
DTM leader Lucas Auer (Landgraf-Mercedes) achieved eighth place, while the previous day’s winner Jordan Pepper (Grasser-Lamborghini) and Winward-Mercedes pilot Jules Gounon complete the top 10 in the second Norisring race on Sunday.
Abbot double failure after a wild start accident
Unlike the previous day, it crashed violently in the first curve on Sunday: An accident between Schubert BMW driver Marco Wittmann and the two Abt Lamborghini drivers Mirko Bortolotti and Nicki Thiim, in which Jules Gounon was also involved in the Winward Mercedes, caused chaos in the back field.
Morris Schuring also suffered damage to his Manthey Porsche, and the race was able to continue after a repair. Happiness for the Dutchman: In order to be able to rescue the damaged vehicles and free the route of debris parts, the race management decided to interrupt the race.
The restart took place around 30 minutes later behind the safety car, whereby everything went smoothly: Vermeulen defended his lead in front of EMI-Frey colleague Aitken and Manthey-Porsche pilot Thomas Preining, who had pushed to third in the first attempt.
There were also no changes in the position behind it. After five minutes, the first of two pit stop stars opened, with Nicolas Baert (Comtoyou-Aston-Martin) after his disqualification in qualifying as the first pilot to change tires.
Lucas Auer, Rene Rast and Timo Glock followed one round later, although the stop for all three teams did not go perfectly. At Fabio Scherer (HRT-Ford), the stop apparently went wrong a little later, because suddenly the Swiss wheel rolled over the route.
Bad luck for DTM rookie calendar in the Landgraf-AMG
The race management had no choice but to immediately call a full-course yellow. This was doomed Tom calendar: he braked his Landgraf Mercedes and was hit by Gilles Magnus (Comtoyou-Aston-Martin) at the rear.
The DTM rookie subsequently had to park its Mercedes with damage to the rear wheel suspension. “I would say I didn’t slow down too early, because that also exists that the drivers don’t expect it,” said Kalende at “ran.de”. “But I saw four or three seconds at Dash and that’s normal.”
“That would also have been the normal brake point. So I don’t know what the colleague is going to do, but it’s just like that,” says the DTM rookie. “I mean you can’t dissolve in the air. This is a typical racing accident scene.” Magnus also stopped his Aston Martin.
Aitken takes the lead thanks to overcut
When the race was released, the top group also came to the first pit stop, led by Vermeulen. Team colleague Aitken and Manthey Pilot Preining came a round later and went by thanks to Overcut past the Dutch.
At this point, Vermeulen had the warmer tires, but the Ferrari driver couldn’t get his lead back. When closing the first pit stop window, Aitken therefore led the race in front of Preining, Vermeulen and Maini.
The outdoor orgy continued in the second half of the race: Ricardo Feller (Land-Audi) hit Luca Engstler on the first curve at the rear. As a result, the 25-year-old, who won the 24-hour race in Spa last weekend, had to park his Grasser Lamborghini with tire damage.
Preining gets leadership at the last stop
Meanwhile, Preining caught up on Aitken at the top, hung to the Ferrari driver with a distance of less than second in the diffuser. Although the DTM champion from 2023 dared to attack in the dozend pond, it braked too late so that Aitken could counter.
At the second pit stop, Preining came in front of the British, which brought an advantage for the Manthey pilot this time: Because the Manthey team stopped a little better than with Aitken, Preining was able to take the lead shortly before the end of the race.
When Aitken got back on the track after his stop, the Austrian had already brought the tires to his “Grello” Porsche at temperature and started his attack directly. Preining breathe in the first curve, but a little later passed the Ferrari pilot.
In the last few minutes, the Manthey driver’s first win of the season was no longer in danger. In the end, the 26-year-old sees the target flag with a lead of 1.5 seconds on the second-placed Aitken.
Only 15 cars at the finish
Shortly before the end of the race, Timo Glock also had to park his Dörr McLaren with a technical problem, which only saw 15 cars the target flag. Team colleague Ben Dörr was the last to collect a point.
With his eighth place, Landgraf Mercedes-Pilot Lucas Auer defends his leadership in the DTM overall ranking. Preining is in second place after his victory, but tied with the previous day’s winner Jordan Pepper. The two pursuers are seven points behind the top of the table.
Now there is a long break: In five weeks, the DTM will be guest on the legendary Nürburgring, where the next two season runs will take place on August 9 and 10.