DTM - Round 2 - Auer dominates, Aitken dazzles & three-way battle for the victory

An action-packed weekend at the Lausitzring sees Lucas Auer take control of the championship with a commanding race one victory, while Jack Aitken storms to glory in race two after a sensational late-race three-way battle with René Rast and Jules Gounon that went right down to the wire.

QUALIFYING 1

The first qualifying session set the tone for an electrifying race weekend at the Lausitzring, from the outset the battle for pole position was fiercely contested, with several drivers exchanging fastest laps in rapid succession. At the six minute mark, it was Lucas Auer in the Team Landgraf Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo who laid down the early benchmark, becoming the first to clock a representative lap time.

As the session progressed, the times began to tumble, firstly with rookie Tom Kalender, followed by Ben Dörr with a 1:20.725. This time was short lived for the McLaren driver, when Auer responded and reclaimed the top spot with a tidy 1:20.474, however the momentum shifted when Ben Green and Thomas Preining were able to take the provisional pole positions, just before Auer hit back with a stunning 1:19.827, setting purple times in all three sectors. With no further improvements from anyone else, Auer’s lap remained at the top, and he secured pole position for race one.

RACE 1

The first race of the weekend exploded into action immediately, with Lucas Auer capitalising on his pole position with a strong launch, but behind him, the chaos unfolded immediately. One of the Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo’s were involved in contact in the opening corners, resulting in an early shuffle in the mid-field. Luca Engstler encountered an issue, and Morris Schuring suffered significant front-end damage, shedding debris across the straight, with the incident prompting an early safety car to be deployed, neutralising the race before it could properly settle into a rhythm.

Racing resumed with fifty minutes on the clock, with Auer maintaining his lead ahead of Maro Engel and René Rast. The top trio looked composed, but the action behind quickly intensified, when Ricardo Feller made a decisive move to overtake Rast and claim third place, indicating the start of multiple battles in the opening race.

The pit strategies began to come into play with just over thirty minutes, as multiple of the mid-field competitors entered the pits. Over the next few laps, the pit lane became a flurry of activity, but with twenty-six minutes remaining Maximilian Paul came into the pits for a second time, and retired the car. Trouble struck championship leading Jordan Pepper who was given a penalty lap for speeding in the pits, which compromised the remainder of his race.

With just twenty-two minutes to go, race leader Auer made his long-awaited pit stop, handing temporary control to those who had not yet pitted. With just twenty minutes to go, Jules Gounon passed Preining for third position, but Maro Engel, who had inherited the race lead after Auer’s stop, made his stop with nineteen minutes to go. Engel came out of the pits close to Auer, and they battled in a wheel-to-wheel moment for a few laps, with both cars going side-by-side, but Auer held firm and remained ahead.

Rast was the final driver to pit, and this set the run to the chequered flag, with Auer, Engel and Rast forming the top three, having managed the pace, and pit timing to perfection. As the laps ticked down to the end, Auer maintained his composure under pressure from Engel and Rast, and crossed the line to take victory for race one, with Engel finishing close in second. Gounon, Marco Wittmann, Preining, Jack Aitken, Ayhancan Güven, Ben Dörr and Ben Green finished in the top ten.

QUALIFYING 2

The second session opened with Ayhancan Güven setting the initial benchmark, setting a solid banker lap as the field gradually built up to speed and confidence rapidly evolved, but with just five minutes to go Jordan Pepper leapt to the top with a 1:20.630, briefly holding provisional pole. Moments later, Jack Aitken went even quicker, showing strong pace and suggesting more to come. As the final minutes ticked down, Lucas Auer was able to nip the top spot, but was then beaten by Aitken in the Emil Frey Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 with a commanding 1:19.837, claiming race two pole position.

RACE 2

Sunday’s second race delivered one of the most dramatic and unpredictable showdowns of the season so far, packed with relentless action, misfortune, penalties, and a stunning late race charge that culminated in a breath-taking three-car duel for victory, with one that went down to the very last metre.

The race got off to a shaky start, especially for pole-sitting Jack Aitken, who experienced contact with Thomas Preining on the opening lap, and this immediately set the tone for a chaotic race. Preining’s Manthey EMA Porsche 992 GT3 R suffered suspension damage in the incident, and was forced to retire, breaking his multiple season spell of points-scoring finishes. Only a few minutes later, disaster struck for Ben Green, who was spun out by Jordan Pepper, and this eliminated the Ferrari driver from the race early on.

Things did not settle after that either, with Marco Wittmann locking up heavily due to an ABS issue, dropping from second to fourth, and kicking off a string of mechanical woes and driver errors that continued throughout the field. The first pit window opened with forty-three minutes to go, with Wittmann, Mirko Bortolotti, Ricardo Feller, Tom Kalender and Luca Engstler pitting early, meanwhile Ben Dörr was attracting attention for all the wrong reasons. After earning a penalty lap for forcing Bortolotti off track, Dörr then spun Morris Schuring, racking up another three penalty laps.

Dörr’s penalty laps weren’t served correctly though, and with just under half-an-hour to go, the drama intensified when René Rast made a move on Jack Aitken, and grabbed the net race lead, but moments later the safety car was deployed due to debris on the track from a previous clash between Wittmann and Schuring.

Racing resumed with twenty-four minutes to go, with Rast leading Aitken and Maro Engel, but the clean racing did not last long, with Ricardo Feller spinning the Aston Martin of Gilles Magnus, and two minutes later the Ford Mustang of Arjun Maini made contact with former Formula One driver Timo Glock in his Dörr Motorsport McLaren 720s GT3 Evo. The contact sent Maini into the gravel, and when he rejoined, he sprayed gravel across the circuit.

Güven started dropping time with under twenty minutes, and dropped from ninth to eleventh as Bortolotti and Maximilian Paul found their way through, just before the second round of pit stops began with Auer, Fabio Scherer, Nicki Thiim, Feller and Magnus diving in immediately. Wittmann and Nicolas Baert followed shortly after, just before the larger wave of stops came with twelve minutes remaining including Gounon, Thierry Vermeulen, Bortolotti, Güven and Glock. Moments later, mechanical madness arrived when the Ford Mustang of Fabio Scherer launched onto two wheels following contact with the Aston Martin of Baert, which also ended the Belgian’s race right there and then.

The leading four, Rast, Aitken, Engel and Pepper made their final stops, but Paul missed the mandatory pit window and was handed a brutal sixty-second time penalty as a result. With just under ten minutes of the race to go, the race entered the final stages with intense battles until the end. Jules Gounon made a powerful move past Engel and Pepper, seizing third place after Engel ran wide at the final corner, meanwhile up-front, Rast’s lead began to shrink rapidly, and by the final minute, Aitken had slashed the gap to just four-tenths, having been two seconds behind only a lap prior.

With the regulation time expired, the race extended into the extra laps, setting up an insane finish, when on the first extra lap, Bortolotti completed a stunning comeback from twentieth to sixth, then on the second lap, Aitken launched a bold attack, going around the outside at turn seven, taking the lead from Rast in a move that will be remembered all season long. The action wasn’t over yet though, when on the final lap, Gounon attempted a last-ditch move on Rast, pulling alongside in a drag race to the finish and the chequered flag. Rast was able to hold on, but by only forty-five-hundredths, securing second place for the Andorran, while pole-sitting Jack Aitken completed the top step of the podium, achieving a brilliant and hard-fought victory.

DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP

After a solid opening weekend for Jordan Pepper, his lower finishing positions at Lausitzring handed the championship lead to the Austrian Mercedes-AMG driver of Lucas Auer, who sits with 69 points after achieving two race wins out of four. Jules Gounon’s solid performances at both Oschersleben and Lausitzring elevate him to second in the championship just six points behind, while Pepper falls fourth with 55 points, just three points ahead of Maro Engel. Jack Aitken’s race two victory elevates the Ferrari driver to fifth with 49 points.

BANKS OF ZANDVOORT AWAIT

The next round of the 2025 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters heads to Circuit Zandvoort on the 7th and 8th June, where a mixed up qualifying format will see race two qualifying on a Friday, due to clashing commitments for multiple drivers participating in the 24 Hours of Le Mans test day.

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