SSR-Lamborghini driver Mirko Bortolotti fought AMG driver Maro Engel down and took the DTM lead from Kelvin van der Linde: he did damage control
Turbulent DTM race on Saturday in Spielberg, where the title fight was in the foreground: Mirko Bortolotti (SSR-Lamborghini; 1st) secured victory and the lead in the standings with a strong race, Kelvin van der Linde (Abt-Audi) finished eighth after starting from 17th place.
Maro Engel (Winward-Mercedes; 2nd) was right on Bortolotti’s heels until the end and finished second, pole setter Arjun Maini (HRT-Mercedes) came in third.
On an initially wet track, Bortolotti laid the foundation. Starting from fourth place, he overtook Maximilian Paul (Paul-Lamborghini; 6th) on the opening lap. He then initially held third place, while Engel extended his lead at the top, which he had taken at the start.
On the fifth lap, he overtook Maini. It was already clear how much more grip Bortolotti was able to build up with the wet-weather tires. Within two laps, he caught up with Engel and then left him standing too. He then drove at times over a second faster than all the other drivers who had started on wet-weather tires.
Engel spun off the track once, but was not attacked by Maini. “In the end, we lost today with the tires being overinflated in the first stint,” he said after crossing the finish line at ran.
The DTM stalwart pitted at the first opportunity, with Bortolotti and Maini coming in a lap later. This ultimately gained Engel almost five seconds once all the tires were up to temperature, leaving him just over two seconds behind Bortolotti.
Bortolotti gives Engel no chance
On a now dry track, the Mercedes-AMG once again showed the performance it had already demonstrated in training and qualifying. But Bortolotti drove flawlessly at the front. Engel came within just under a second, but was never able to reduce the gap to less than 0.9 seconds. Bortolotti kept his nerve and took the victory.
“This trophy will get a very special place. I feel great. This was probably my best victory ever, just against everything and everyone,” Bortolotti told ran.
How could he drive so fast on wet tires? “You saw it, the Mercedes pulled away on the first two laps. Then the tide turned. I think we just made the right choice with the set-up and got the tires to work slowly.”
Bortolotti and Engel dominated the race, with Maini taking his second podium finish of the season after Saturday’s race at Zandvoort. Luca Stolz (HRT, Mercedes) followed in another AMG to take fourth place. Stolz was stuck in a group of up to seven cars after the pit stop, which was initially chaotic.
In the end, he prevailed against Ayhancan Güven (Manthey-EMA-Porsche; 5th) and Maximilian Paul. The latter overtook Lucas Auer (Winward-Mercedes; 7th) in the closing stages. Kelvin van der Linde was also overtaken by Ricardo Feller (Abt-Audi; 10th) in the closing stages.
“I’m proud that we fought our way to the front without a scratch on the car. That’s quite a statement in the DTM,” he told ran after the race. ‘But mamma mia, the cars in front of us were fast.’ The Audi R8 LMS GT3 and the Red Bull Ring probably won’t be friends anymore.
However, it was not planned that Rene Rast (Schubert-BMW; 9th) would overtake the Swiss driver. He was the best BMW in an extremely difficult race for both Bavarian brands. “BMW and we were simply nowhere to be seen today,” said van der Linde, annoyed.
Strong Schmid show without a happy ending
Clemens Schmid (Dörr-McLaren; 15th) caused the sensation of the race. He was the only driver to start on slicks. After initial problems, he soon became the fastest driver in the field and began to make his move up the field. After the pit stop, he was briefly in sixth place.
When the tires had warmed up, he was ninth, but from then on it was only downhill. “Unfortunately, something went wrong with the air pressure. With over two bar on the rear axle, we were well above the target. I have no idea what went wrong,” he said angrily to ran. He still scored a point for finishing in 15th place, but he could have achieved much more at his home race.
The race was also frustrating for Marco Wittmann (Schubert-BMW; DNF), who had to park his BMW M4 GT3 in the pits for reasons that are still unclear. This marks the continuation of the two-time champion’s streak of bad luck.
With three races remaining, Bortolotti leads the championship by ten points from Engel, who are twelve points ahead of Kelvin van der Linde. On Sunday, qualifying is scheduled for 9:45 am and the race will start at the usual time of 1:30 pm.