DTM Race Sachsenring 1: Wittmann wins and keeps the title fight open

– Marco Wittmann picked up where he left off at the last race at the Nürburgring: The Schubert-BMW driver celebrated his second win of the season on Saturday at the Sachsenring and reduced his deficit in the DTM overall standings to just 14 points.

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Winward-Mercedes driver Jules Gounon temporarily took the lead thanks to a later pit stop but ultimately could not hold the top position due to a slight lock-up in the first corner. The Frenchman finished in second place, with Manthey-Porsche driver Thomas Preining completing the podium.

Schubert-BMW driver Kelvin van der Linde finished fourth, closely followed by Maro Engel (Winward-Mercedes) and Matteo Cairoli (Emil-Frey-Ferrari). Mirko Bortolotti (Grasser-Lamborghini) held off the Comtoyou-Aston-Martin of Nicki Thiim. Thierry Vermeulen (Emil-Frey-Ferrari) and Ben Dörr (Dörr-McLaren) rounded out the top 10.

Landgraf-Mercedes driver Lucas Auer, who had to start from the back of the field after his accident in qualifying, managed to finish in eleventh place, thus limiting the damage. Nevertheless, Auer has dropped to fifth place in the overall standings, 36 points behind the leader.

Wittmann defends pole in chaotic start

Polesitter Marco Wittmann held the lead at the start of the race, while second-placed Thomas Preining fell back to fourth. Both Jules Gounon and Kelvin van der Linde passed the Manthey-Porsche.

Meanwhile, several duels and collisions occurred in the backfield, resulting in Land-Porsche driver Bastian Buus getting stuck in the gravel trap. The two Abt-Lamborghinis of Marco Mapelli and Luca Engstler, as well as Timo Glock (Dörr-McLaren), were also involved in the incident. The safety car had to be deployed.

But Buus was lucky: The Dane was allowed to continue despite receiving outside assistance, as the race control judged he was not at fault for the incident. However, the Land-Porsche driver had to pit due to a slow puncture.

While the Dane was able to continue, Engstler and Mapelli had to retire their cars. “I don’t know exactly what happened. I have to watch it,” Engstler said on ProSieben. “I actually had a good start and a good first corner. I got through cleanly.”

DTM 2026: Sachsenring race weekend

“And then there was some kind of contact in front of me, a lot of dust, [I] was then on the inside,” the Abt-Lamborghini driver continued. “And then a car spun in front of me, hit me, and I was just a passenger after that.”

At the restart after the safety car phase, there were no changes at the front of the field: Wittmann remained in the lead, followed by Gounon, van der Linde, and Preining. Lucas Auer had already fought his way up to 16th position by then.

Round two in the clash between Thiim and Kalender

In the midfield, a familiar duel continued, which had already heated up at the Nürburgring: Nicki Thiim hit the rear of Tom Kalender’s Landgraf-Mercedes and pushed him off the track, allowing several drivers to pass.

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The race control ordered a position swap, so Thiim had to drop from eighth to 13th place. In addition, the Aston Martin driver received his first warning of the season (see all current warnings here).

At the front, Wittmann and Gounon pulled away from the rest of the field: Kelvin van der Linde slowed the field as third place, so the gap to the two leaders had already grown to more than five seconds by the time the pit stop window opened.

The South African was among the first drivers to pit, along with Vermeulen, HRT-Ford driver Arjun Maini, Manthey-Porsche driver Ricardo Feller, and Kalender. This disproved the suspicion that the Schubert-BMW driver wanted to slow the field to help his teammate Wittmann at the front.

Jules Gounon sniffs leadership, but …

Wittmann pitted on lap 16, while second-placed Gounon stayed out one lap longer. That was enough for the Winward-Mercedes driver to briefly take the lead. However, the polesitter was able to capitalize shortly after on a small lock-up in the first corner to mount a successful counterattack.

Preining also benefited from the pit stop: The Manthey-Porsche driver had previously overtaken Kelvin van der Linde with a later pit stop and then managed to close the gap to the leading duo. The top 3 were closely grouped at the front.

While the top 3 were in agreement, things were much wilder behind them: Nick Thiim and Vermeulen fought a duel for ninth place, while Engel and Cairoli slowly caught up to fourth-placed van der Linde. The Manthey-Porsche of Ricardo Feller was also heavily damaged after several collisions.

Auer, who had temporarily taken the lead, came in for a tire change just before the pit stop window closed as the last driver. This dropped the Austrian back to 16th place, but he had the freshest tires for the final phase and fought his way up to eleventh place.

Preining extends DTM overall lead

Simon Connor Primm finished 15th in his DTM debut in the Seyffarth-Audi, leaving both Nicolas Baert (Comtoyou-Aston-Martin) and Finn Wiebelhaus (HRT-Ford) behind. Maximilian Paul (Grasser-Lamborghini) did not finish in his comeback.

Preining, who took the overall lead with second place in qualifying, extended his lead with third place in the race. The Austrian now has a six-point lead over second-placed Engel. Wittmann has reduced his deficit to 14 points.

The second DTM race at the Sachsenring starts on Sunday (September 13) as usual at 1:30 p.m. The starting positions for the third-last race of the 2026 season will be determined beforehand in the second qualifying session (from 8:55 a.m., here in the free live stream).

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