Preining Secures Title as Auer, Engel Take Final Wins of Season

Manthey Porsche driver Thomas Preining claimed a second DTM title at last weekend’s Hockenheim finale, while the last wins of the season went to Mercedes-AMG pair Lucas Auer and Maro Engel.

Despite his title success, the first race got off to a tricky start for Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo driver Preining as he was eased out on the grass through the Parabolika and tumbled from third to 14th.

Up at the front, polesitter Luca Engstler’s ABT Lamborghini Temerario GT3 was soon under attack from Auer’s Landgraf Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo and the pair made contact heading into the stadium section on the second lap with Engstler spinning hard into the wall and the race was red-flagged while the damaged wall was repaired.

Auer led Engel upon the restart but the Winward driver was in a determined mood to try to close the gap to points leader Preining and went round the outside of Auer at, appropriately, Mercedes corner to take the lead.

But it all went wrong for Engel during the mandatory pit stop when the right-rear wheel would not detach and he lost over ten seconds, falling to third behind Mirko Bortolotti’s Grasser Lamborghini and Marco Wittmann’s Schubert Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO.

Engel did dive ahead of Wittmann in the stadium section but was instructed to give the place back after forcing the BMW off the track, and was then subsequently unable to retaliate.

Up ahead, Auer finally scored his first victory of the season, while second represented Bortolotti’s best result.

Third for Wittmann, from 11th on the grid, moved him up to second in the points table, while Preining’s recovery from his tricky start netted him fifth and still a 20-point lead, as Kelvin van der Linde’s BMW completed the top-six.

Engel started third for the decider and quickly dispatched Preining’s teammate Ricardo Feller, before then grabbing the lead from polesitter Bastian Buus’ Land Motorsport Porsche at Turn 8 shortly afterwards.

But, on each occasion, Preining followed his title rival through and was therefore in the box seat to claim the title.

There were no pit stop dramas for Engel this time and he scored a third win of the season, but Preining’s margin was sufficient to even allow Feller through to second on the last lap as the Austrian added to his title glory from 2023.

Buus held on to fourth, while Ben Doerr’s McLaren 720S GT3 Evo and Matteo Cairoli’s Emil Frey Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo completed the top-six.

Wittmann was seventh, from 16th on the grid, but slipped back behind Engel to third in the final standings as a result.