Guven Seals Title With Hockenheim Race 2 Win

Ayhancan Guven became DTM champion for the first time in his career by taking a last-lap Race 2 victory at the Hockenheimring.

The Turkish racer came out on top in a dramatic showdown with the No. 11 Schubert Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Marco Wittmann after a shootout following a late safety car restart.

Guven’s No. 90 Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3 R started the race from second place behind the No. 7 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Gilles Magnus.

An overcut strategy from Manthey allowed Guven to overcut the Aston Martin during the first pitstop window and take the lead of the race, with Magnus then losing a potential maiden podium when he suffered a right rear suspension failure.

Race control then waited until after the second pit window to bring out the safety car to recover Magnus’ stricken car, setting up a shootout with just a handful of laps remaining.

The battle between Guven and Wittmann then became even more significant in the context of the championship when both Jack Aitken and Jordan Pepper received a black flag for ignoring stewards’ instruction to take a triple penalty for overtaking under yellow.

This, in turn, looked set to promote Lucas Auer from sixth to fourth place, meaning he would have been in a position to win the title if Wittmann denied Guven victory.

That scenario appeared to play out when Wittmann launched a decisive attack on the No. 90 Porsche on the final lap, wrestling his way into the lead into Turn 8 despite a firm defensive effort from Guven.

However, Guven then went on the offensive into Turn 9, launching up the inside of Wittmann and barging his way past in an all or nothing attempt to regain the lead.

In the end, Guven took victory by just 0.169 seconds over Wittmann, claiming his first DTM title in the process.

Guven became the first Turkish-born driver to become DTM champion, succeeding Mirko Bortolotti.

The 27-year-old also follows in the footsteps of Manthey stablemate Thomas Preining, who won the title in 2023.

Maro Engel completed the podium for the season finale in third, followed by Auer, Tom Kalender, Preining and Bortolotti.

Luca Engstler, Ricardo Feller and Maximilian Paul completed the top ten.

Morris Schuring, meanwhile, won the rookie title while Manthey EMA already clinched the teams’ championship on Saturday.