BMW driver Rene Rast beats local hero Thomas Preining, Mirko Bortolotti takes another step towards the title despite ballast and stop problems
Rene Rast (Schubert-BMW; 1st) secured his second victory of the season in the DTM Sunday race in Spielberg. The three-time champion started from third place on the grid and beat local hero Thomas Preining (Manthey-EMA-Porsche; 2nd) in the “Grello”, who put him under pressure until the end. Third place went to Arjun Maini (HRT, Mercedes), who once again drove a strong race.
In the title race, Mirko Bortolotti (SSR, Lamborghini; 4th) had the better end for himself, but did not extend his lead in the overall standings as much as might have been expected at the start of the race. In the end, he only managed to gain two points on Kelvin van der Linde (Abt-Audi; 5th), who had fought his way up from twelfth place on the grid. (DTM Championship Standings)
Bortolotti set the pace during the first stint from pole position. Although he had to drive with a total of 45 kilograms more than on Saturday due to the combination of the new Balance of Performance (BoP) and the success ballast for Saturday’s victory, he was in the lead until the pit stop.
This was mainly because Luca Engstler (Grasser-Lamborghini; DNF), Rast and Preining were involved in a thrilling three-way battle for second place, which gave Bortolotti a cushion.
Rast had almost overtaken Engstler on the opening lap, but the latter defended his position with the courage of despair on the outside, keeping the three-time DTM champion at bay so that Preining could pass. But Rast struck back a few laps later on the outside when Preining’s attack on Engstler failed.
Rast overtook Engstler, who was having more and more trouble keeping up with the pace due to an impending gearbox failure. After he also had to let Preining go, the gearbox was finally broken. “At first, I no longer had any engine braking and it was clear that I would lose the gearbox sooner or later,”
Pit stop decides the outcome
Bortolotti, who was paying the price for his extra weight, was caught towards the end of his first stint. He pitted at the halfway point – one lap after Preining but one ahead of Rast. However, the strategy of stopping early proved to be disadvantageous in this race; the ‘overcut’ was the much better option.
On top of that, Bortolotti’s left front wheel got stuck, costing another one and a half seconds. Since he was also involved in a fight with Preining after the stop, Rast came out in front of the two. Preining emerged victorious from the duel with Bortolotti and now set out to chase Rast, while Maini also came out ahead of the SSR Lamborghini.
This caused further chaos, as Bortolotti suddenly found himself in a four-way battle with Maini, Sheldon van der Linde (Schubert BMW; P6) and Ayhancan Güven (Manthey EMA Porsche; P7). Using a NASCAR strategy known as bump drafting, he pushed himself and Maini past van der Linde and Güven. Kelvin van der Linde also benefited from this scene and moved up to fifth place.
At the front, Preining closed the gap on Rast. “Thomas was extremely fast. He would have easily won the race,” Rast admitted to ran. “It’s not so much fun when you’re under pressure. Today’s victory was a team effort. The pit stop was ridiculously fast, and that gave me exactly the gap that I was able to manage in the end.”
Rast didn’t make any more mistakes and took his second victory of the season, which the local hero was denied. ‘With the program we have here, I would have liked to have won. After all, you don’t get many chances like this in the DTM,’ said Preining on the YouTube livestream.
“In the end, we just didn’t have enough in the bag. But P2 is still a good result and overall it was a very good day. I’m satisfied.”
Only three left for the title
Maini finished third again and was once again the best Mercedes-AMG driver. The Mercedes-AMG GT3 had to carry 20 kilograms more after their strong performance on Sunday (including a five-fold victory in the ADAC GT Masters in the supporting program), which made a noticeable difference.
Bortolotti had to push hard to keep ahead of Kelvin van der Linde at the end, but managed to keep the Audi driver at bay. Was that the best he could do? Bortolotti told ran: “I pushed as hard as I could and defended the lead at the start. I couldn’t have done any better. Unfortunately, we have to be satisfied with fourth place.” Nevertheless, he considers the weekend a complete success.
Van der Linde also considers the weekend a success, at least as far as Sunday’s race is concerned. “That was a mega race. I’m proud of the whole team and my performance today. It’s always nice when you can get the maximum out of a race, and that was the maximum. Sometimes a fifth place can feel really good,” he told ran.
Behind the van der Linde brothers and Güven, Maro Engel (Winward-Mercedes) came in eighth. This means that Bortolotti has a 15-point lead over van der Linde and 20 over Engel going into the final weekend at Hockenheim. Only these three can still win the title mathematically.
Franck Perera (Grasser-Lamborghini; 9th), who was involved in some fierce scraps, and Jack Aitken (Emil-Frey-Ferrari; 10th) completed the Top Ten. Luca Stolz (HRT-Mercedes; DNF) with brake problems and Lucas Auer (Winward-Mercedes; DNF) with a puncture were joined by Engstler on the sidelines.
The final weekend of the season will be held at the Hockenheimring from October 18th to 20th.
