– The jumping horse was unstoppable on Saturday at the Nürburgring: Emil-Frey-Ferrari driver Matteo Cairoli celebrates his third win of the season in a crazy race in which only twelve cars actually saw the checkered flag (results), making an important step forward in the overall standings.
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Behind the Ferrari driver, who crossed the finish line with a dominant lead of more than ten seconds, Thomas Preining (Manthey-Porsche) and Marco Wittmann (Schubert-BMW) complete the podium.
Ben Dörr (Dörr-McLaren) finished fourth, followed by Lucas Auer (Landgraf-Mercedes) and points leader Maro Engel, who was driving his Winward-AMG with 20 kilograms of success ballast from Oschersleben. Teammate Jules Gounon crossed the finish line seventh, although the Frenchman may still face a post-race penalty.
Gounon collided with Ricardo Feller after the pit stop. The Manthey-Porsche driver spun off the track and lightly hit the barrier but was able to continue and ultimately finish ninth. Luca Engstler (Abt-Lamborghini) finished eighth, and Bastian Buus (Land-Porsche) rounded out the top 10.
Start phase with numerous battles and retirements
Cairoli converted his pole position directly into the lead at the start, followed by Preining. Behind them, Auer had a disappointing start as he was overtaken by Dörr and Wittmann and dropped from third to fifth place during the first lap.
Kelvin van der Linde (Schubert-BMW) had to serve a penalty lap for a jump start and also fell back. Nicki Thiim and Mirko Bortolotti (Grasser-Lamborghini) went off into the gravel trap during the first lap, after which the Italian had to retire his car early.
“Mirko didn’t have a particularly good start, he had two collisions where two cars pushed him off the track,” explained team boss Gottfried Grasser in the official DTM stream. “And unfortunately, we believe the front radiator is completely clogged with dirt and the water temperature rose too much, so we had to retire.”
Shortly after, Marco Mapelli (Abt-Lamborghini) spun off the track after being pushed by Timo Glock (Dörr-McLaren). Race control investigated the incident and handed the former Formula 1 driver three penalty laps. Glock then also retired his car early.
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In the backfield, the battles continued: Thiim and Tom Kalender (Landgraf-Mercedes) clashed in the chicane area and both went straight off. The youngster retired after his exhaust was damaged, while Thiim had to serve a slow penalty lap for the contact.
McLaren driver Dörr loses possible podium at the pit stop
At the front, there were no changes until the single pit stop window opened: Cairoli led the race ahead of Preining and Dörr, while Wittmann defended his fourth place against Auer, with both drivers pitting at the first opportunity. Other drivers followed behind, but there were no changes.
Dörr pitted a lap later, but the stop was not perfect for the Dörr team. The McLaren junior returned to the track just ahead of Wittmann but could not defend his third position against the BMW driver. Cairoli was the last driver from the leading group to pit and maintained the lead ahead of Preining and the new third-placed Wittmann.
In the final phase, when thick smoke from forest fires in the Eifel once again settled over the Nürburgring, there were no more changes at the front. Kelvin van der Linde had to retire his Schubert-BMW due to a defect, and a later collision between Christian Engelhart (Grasser-Lamborghini) and Thierry Vermeulen (Emil-Frey-Ferrari) meant that only twelve cars saw the checkered flag in total.
Maro Engel defends points lead in the DTM
Arjun Maini and Finn Wiebelhaus retired their HRT Ford Mustangs early after just a few laps. Both drivers had to serve a drive-through penalty at the start of the race because HRT had violated testing regulations before the race. Since a scoring result was hardly possible, the team saved the tires for Sunday.
Winward-Mercedes driver Maro Engel defends his lead in the DTM overall standings, although Thomas Preining (Manthey-Porsche) has reduced the gap to 17 points. Cairoli is now in fifth place, behind Auer and Thiim.
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On Sunday, the second DTM race at the Nürburgring will take place (from 1:30 pm, live stream here), with temperatures expected to be lower than on Saturday and a slight chance of rain depending on the weather model. The starting positions will be determined beforehand in qualifying (from 9:10 am).
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