DTM Race Sachsenring 1: Wittmann wins and keeps title chance alive

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

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“I knew we had a good starting position with pole position, but it was still extremely difficult,” Wittmann says on ProSieben. “I know the track is not one where you can easily overtake. Therefore, it was important to run the right strategy, have a good pit stop, and basically make no mistakes throughout the race.”

Actually, the competition had the better strategy, as Jules Gounon (Winward-Mercedes) initially took the lead after the pit stop. “It was a super fair duel where we left space for each other,” adds the BMW driver, who benefited from a small mistake by his rival and was able to regain the lead.

“It was not a race to manage; it was really full throttle every lap and not allowing any mistakes. I think we didn’t have the fastest race car today, but due to the track characteristics, we were able to stay at the front.” Gounon finished second, less than half a second behind Wittmann.

Thomas Preining (Manthey-Porsche) finished third. “Yes, a good day for us,” the Austrian, who stood on the podium for the fifth consecutive time, said on ProSieben. “Great, I’m really satisfied. It could certainly have gone better, but something was missing. Basically a solid result, important for the championship.”

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) completed 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 eleventh, thus limiting the damage. Nevertheless, Auer has dropped to fifth place in the overall standings, now 36 points behind the leader.

Wittmann defends pole in chaotic start

Pole sitter Marco Wittmann held the lead at the start of the race, while second-placed Thomas Preining fell back to fourth position. 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 shortly after due to a slow puncture.

While the Dane was at least 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 there.”

DTM 2026: Sachsenring race weekend

“And then there was somehow a touch in front of me, a lot of dust, [I] was then 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 only safety car phase of the race, there were no changes at the front of the field: Wittmann remained in the lead, ahead of Gounon, van der Linde, and Preining. Auer had already fought his way up to 16th position by that time.

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Round two in the feud between Thiim and Kalender

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

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

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. This was enough for the Winward-Mercedes driver to briefly take the lead. However, the polesitter was able to exploit a small lock-up in the first corner shortly after to make 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. From that point on, the top 3 were closely grouped at the front.

While the top 3 were largely in agreement, things were much wilder behind them: Thiim and Vermeulen fought a duel for ninth position, 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 his tire change just before the pit stop window closed as the last driver. This dropped the Austrian back to 16th position, 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 after the serious Norisring accident.

Preining, who had already taken 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. Thiim (-30 points) is fourth.

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

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