– Winward-AMG driver Maro Engel won the second DTM race at the Red Bull Ring (full race report): The German started the Sunday race from fifth place and catapulted himself into second place in the early stages.
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However, Engel only managed the decisive winning maneuver against BMW driver Kelvin van der Linde shortly after the first pit stop: The Winward Mercedes driver pitted one lap earlier for the mandatory tire change, thus executing a classic undercut against the pole-sitter.
With warmer tires, Engel attacked on the inside of Turn 3, initially pulling alongside the Schubert BMW and finally completing the overtaking maneuver on the outside in Turn 6. What was striking: The eventual race winner left an unusually large amount of space for his opponent and maintained a noticeably large distance.
“I wanted to make sure I left him enough space on the inside with the cold tires, because I’m a burnt child,” Engel reveals in the post-race press conference. The AMG driver is apparently referring to a scene that happened almost two years ago.
In the Sunday race at the Nürburgring in 2024, Engel, who had started from pole position, was comfortably in the lead when the then Schubert BMW driver Rene Rast hit him from behind and spun him around. The triple champion had just come out of the pits on cold tires and had therefore missed his braking point in the first corner.
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DTM winner Engel “drove particularly cautiously”
After the race, Rast even blamed Engel for the collision, claiming that the AMG driver had not left him enough space. But while the BMW driver was then penalized by race control with three penalty laps as the cause, Engel still managed to save second place.
Photos: DTM 2026: Spielberg Race Weekend
This exact scene is apparently still present in the mind of the now 40-year-old – and the Mercedes driver likely had the situation from back then in mind during this year’s Spielberg race as well. “So I drove particularly cautiously and very wide to make sure there was no contact,” says Engel.
“But Kelvin is, of course, a great driver, so I knew he had his car under control and just wanted to make sure there was enough space,” adds the AMG driver with a slight dig at his former rival Rene Rast.
With his overtaking maneuver against Kelvin van der Linde, who subsequently fell further back due to tire problems, Engel took the lead and then confidently drove towards his third DTM victory. With this opening success, the Winward Mercedes driver also takes the lead in the overall standings.
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