Aitken Takes Points Lead with Nürburgring Race 1 Win

Jack Aitken captured the championship lead in DTM by beating Ben Green and Ricardo Feller to a hard-fought victory in a red-flagged Race 1 at the Nürburgring.

Aitken, piloting the No. 14 Emil Frey Racing Ferrari 296 GT3, overcame an undercut strategy from Feller to take his second win of the season, following on from a triumph at the Lausitzring.

The Ferrari driver started the race from pole position and maintained first place through an incident-packed opening phase, which was red-flagged after multiple drivers clashed on the opening two laps.

Rene Rast, Mirko Bortolotti, Gilles Magnus and Fabio Scherer became tangled up in an incident in Turn 2, while Thierry Vermeulen was tagged into the gravel by Maro Engel’s No. 24 Winward Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo at Turn 7.

In the latter incident, Jules Gounon notably also suffered damage in his No. 48 Mercedes-AMG, with both Winward cars later retiring.

Ayhancan Guven was also eliminated after contact from Manthey stablemate Morris Schuring.

Once the race resumed, Aitken maintained the lead while Emil Frey Racing moved into a 1-2 position when Ben Green’s No. 10 Ferrari passed the No. 19 GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 of Luca Engstler at Turn 1.

However, a late pitstops from both Aitken and Green left the two Ferraris vulnerable to an undercut from Feller.

The No. 29 Land Motorsport Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II initially vaulted past on Aitken’s outlap, before clipping the grass under braking at the Veedol Chicane, running wide and losing out to Aitken.

Feller then regained the lead when he overtook Aitken around the outside of Turn 2, only for Aitken to definitively decide the race in his favor when he wrestled past the Audi at Turn 1 with 12 minutes to go.

That move also allowed Green to slip by into second place, with Feller completing the overall podium in the No. 29 Audi.

Jordan Pepper finished fourth in the No. 63 Lamborghini, ahead of the No. 11 Schubert Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Marco Wittmann.

Lucas Auer finished sixth in the No. 22 Team Landgraf Mercedes-AMG, losing the championship lead to Aitken as a result.

Rast initially recovered to seventh in his No. 33 BMW in the wake of his opening lap tangle, but was given a 15-second post-race penalty that dropped him to 14th.

As a result, Engstler was promoted to seventh, with Ben Doerr, Thomas Preining and Timo Block completing the top ten.

RESULTS: Race 1