Olsen Holds Off Goetz to Win Saturday Spa Race

Dennis Olsen scored his first DTM victory by holding off reigning champion Maximilian Goetz in a tense Saturday race at Spa.

The Norwegian converted pole position to a race win aboard the No. 94 SSR Performance Porsche 911 GT3 R, holding off the No. 1 Mercedes-AMG Team Winward Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo by 0.818 seconds at the flag.

Olsen largely controlled the race from the start even as rain increased throughout the closing stages of the race.

Goetz, who pitted several laps later than Olsen, took advantage of his fresher tires to close the gap to the Porsche in the second half of the race.

The German took advantage from a race-ending puncture for teammate Lucas Auer, who had remained ahead of Goetz despite a slow pitstop due to problems with the left front wheel.

The puncture allowed Goetz to move into second position, going on to claim his first podium of the season.

Thomas Preining recovered from a scare on the opening lap to finish third.

The No. 24 KÜS Team Bernhard Porsche started second but made side-by-side contact through Eau Rouge with Auer, sending Preining into a slide.

The Austrian was able to regain control of his Porsche and avoid a worse fate, but dropped to the lower edges of the top ten.

Preining charged back up the order, aided by further retirements for Laurens Vanthoor and Maro Engel, to finish third.

Engel saw his charging drive end prematurely when contact with Rolf Ineichen caused a left-rear puncture for the No. 88 Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM car, ending his race.

Rene Rast finished the race in fourth, ahead of Abt Sportsline teammate Kelvin van der Linde, Nico Mueller and Felipe Fraga.

Mirko Bortolotti scored potentially valuable championship points by charging from 20th on the grid to eighth ahead of Marco Wittmann and Nick Cassidy.

David Schumacher missed out on his first championship points in eleventh, while Sheldon van der Linde ended the race in twelfth after starting down in 22nd.