DTM - Round 6 - Sachsenring Weekend Report

The sixth round of 2024 of the 2024 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters season took us to eastern Germany at Sachsenring.

The weekend started with an announcement from GRT Grasser Racing Team, that Jordan Pepper would step-in for Christian Engelhart, who is recovering from a recent knee surgery. He would be piloting the #63 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, which Franck Perera previously drove at the Norisring and Nürburgring rounds.

Photo: DailySportsCar.com

QUALIFYING 1

The first qualifying was spearheaded by Thomas Preining, who grabbed pole for Manthey EMA with a 1:17.199, just 0.089 seconds to P2, earning him 3 points. Ultimately he started the race in sixth, as he was given a 5 place grid penalty for collecting three warnings in the previous rounds. Jack Aitken therefore inherited pole in the Emil Frey Racing Ferrari 296 GT3, with Mirko Bortolotti in the SSR Performance Lamborghini moving up to second, and Luca Stolz in the Team HRT Mercedes-AMG obtaining the third spot on the grid.

Thomas Preining’s teammate, Ayhancan Güven was 1.088 seconds behind, qualifying in P18. Both of the ABT Sportsline Audi’s struggled, with the highest placed Audi being Kelvin van der Linde in P10, followed by Ricardo Feller in P19. McLaren has once again been unable to get full potential in the German GT3 series, with Clemens Schmid qualifying P16, and Ben Dörr in P20, 1.288 seconds behind pole.

The DTM debutant Jordan Pepper managed to qualify as the second best of the Lamborghini’s in P8, beating his teammate Luca Engstler in the progress.

Photo: Gruppe C Photography

RACE 1

Race 1 began with early contact between Marco Wittmann, Luca Engstler and Clemens Schmid. Clemens Schmid retired due to the damage sustained in the accident with thirty-seven minutes still to go. Engstler ultimately suffered the same fate, retiring with just twenty-eight minutes left on the clock after receiving significant damage to the front right corner in the lap one scuffle. 

​Ricardo Feller became the third retiree after coming into the pits with just twenty minutes remaining. Following this retirement we saw incredible battles between the other ABT Audi of Kelvin van der Linde and reigning champion Thomas Preining in a Porsche 992. With less than three minutes to go the van der Linde brothers had a short battle that was interrupted by Ayhancan Güven spinning into the gravel due to a rear right puncture. He became the fourth and final retirement from the first race of the weekend.

Overall the win went to the Emil Frey Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 in the hands of Jack Aitken, coming home ahead of Mirko Bortolotti and Maro Engel. This result put Mirko Bortolotti back into the lead of the championship before the start of race two. Another noticeable result from race one was Jordan Pepper, the South African coming home in P10 and scoring points on his race debut in the DTM Championship.

QUALIFYING 2

Thierry Vermeulen grabbed his maiden pole position in the DTM for the Emil Frey Racing team, with a 1:17.311. Kelvin van der Linde improved on Saturday’s qualifying, by placing his Audi in P2, just 0.008 seconds behind Vermeulen, who was followed closely by Luca Stolz. The second Ferrari of Jack Aitken qualified P4 and the pole man from Saturday, Thomas Preining would qualify P6, starting in the same position as he did in race one.

Jordan Pepper was once again the second best Lamborghini in P8, his teammate Luca Engstler beat him, grabbing P5. The championship leading Lamborghini in the hands of Mirko Bortolotti only managed a disappointing P11 this time round.

The McLaren’s improved on their pace, with Clemens Schmid placing P12 and Ben Dörr in P16.

Schubert Motorsport BMW’s had a lacklustre qualifying, with Sheldon van der Linde qualifying P10, while Marco Wittmann and René Rast in P19 and P20 respectively.

Photo: Burkard Kasan

RACE 2

René Rast, who started nineteenth in his BMW, made up six positions in the first lap, finding himself in thirteenth position. His teammate Sheldon van der Linde unfortunately got a rear right puncture in the first ten minutes of the race, where he would limp back to the pits, only just managing to get into pitlane because traffic was attempting to get past.

After the pitlane opened twenty minutes into the race, Arjun Maini’s rear right tire detached, resulting in him having to retire the car. A few minutes later, with about half of the race remaining, René Rast made contact with Jordan Pepper in turn one, which resulted in the Lamborghini taking out Marco Wittmann in the process as well.

Vermeulen had a lead of nearly two seconds over Stolz when the safety car was called, due to the incident between Pepper and Wittmann. The race resumed shortly after, however the leading car of Vermeulen was issued a penalty lap, due to a pit stop infringement. This handed the victory to Luca Stolz, who’s win marks the first win for the Affalterbach brand in DTM for 2024, after he won a race at Sachsenring last year. The remaining podium spots were occupied by Kelvin van der Linde and Thierry Vermeulen, who scored his maiden podium.

CHAMPIONSHIP IMPLICATIONS

Kelvin van der Linde’s eighth and second place this weekend means he retains the lead in the championship with Bortolotti only 7 points behind in second place. - Meanwhile in the teams’ championship, Schubert Motorsport leads by 22 points over ABT Sportsline and 42 points over Winward Racing. - Over in the manufacturers’ standings, Mercedes-AMG takes the lead from Lamborghini and now leads by just 20 points.

DTM HEADS TO THE STYRIAN HILLS

The DTM will return at the end of the month at the Red Bull Ring, in Austria, for the penultimate round of the 2024 season, on the 28th - 29th September.