Cairoli, Wittmann Share Wins on Eventful Nürburgring Weekend

Ferrari driver Matteo Cairoli and BMW’s Marco Wittmann shared the wins on an eventful DTM weekend at the Nürburgring, during which championship contenders Maro Engel and Lucas Auer tangled on the opening lap of the second contest.

Cairoli dominated the opener from pole in his Emil Frey Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo, eventually crossing the line almost ten seconds ahead of Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo racer Thomas Preining, who had also started on the front row.

Ben Doerr had climbed up to third at the start in his Doerr Motorsport McLaren 720S GT3 Evo but a slightly slow pit stop dropped him behind Wittmann’s Schubert Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO.

Points leader Engel did emerge from his stop in third at the wheel of his Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo but fell behind Wittmann, Doerr and Auer as he got up to speed on his cold tires and therefore had to settle for sixth at the flag.

A whole host of contenders were in strife, including title protagonist Nicki Thiim who hit Tom Kalendar’s Landgraf Mercedes-AMG early on and was eventually classified 11th in his Comtoyou Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo.

Christian Engelhart’s return to the DTM in place of the injured Maximilian Paul in a Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Temerario GT3 ended in misery when he collided with Thierry Vermeulen’s Ferrari on the last lap and then did not take part in race two with his car too badly damaged.

Neither HRT Ford Mustang GT3 Evo finished, and their races were already compromised by having to serve a drive-through penalty for platinum-graded Frank Stippler having tested the car at the Nurburgring earlier in the month on DTM tires, contrary to series regulations, and without the team having given prior warning.

The second contest also featured some notable retirements with the Mercedes-AMGs of Engel and Auer coming together at the second corner and also collecting Kelvin van der Linde’s BMW, with all three forced out of the race and the safety car called into action.

Polesitter Jules Gounon’s Mercedes-AMG led Doerr and Cairoli upon the resumption but each of their races fell apart during the stops.

First, Doerr’s front-right wheelnut was not secured properly when he rejoined, which sent him into retirement, then Cairoli lost a whole heap of time with a terribly slow stop that left him only able to achieve 13th at the flag.

And Gounon was also in strife as he was found to have been speeding in the pit lane and had to serve a penalty lap, which relegated him to 14th by the finish.

Instead it was Wittmann who profited as he went on to take his first DTM win in two years, although he had a charging Kalendar right in his mirrors.

The Landgraf driver had stormed up the order from 11th on the grid and passed Preining with two laps to go to secure his first series podium but ran out of time to launch an attack on the leading BMW.

Third for Preining means he is now just one point behind Engel at the summit of the standings, while Arjun Maini enjoyed a better Sunday to finish fourth in a HRT Mustang.

The Temerario GT3s of Mirko Bortolotti and Luca Engstler then rounded out the top-six as Thiim fell back from podium contention to seventh.

The next rounds of the DTM are due to take place at the Sachsenring on Sept. 12-13.