Pepper Takes Maiden Series Win in Norisring Race 1

Jordan Pepper, fresh off victory in the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa, converted pole position to take his maiden DTM race win with a lights-to-flag display during Race 1 at the Norisring.

The No. 63 GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 crossed the line with an advantage of 3.055 seconds over the No. 91 Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3 R of Thomas Preining.

Maro Engel completed the podium for Winward Racing, followed by a pair of Emil Frey Racing Ferrari 296 GT3s of Thierry Vermeulen and Jack Aitken in fourth and fifth, respectively.

Vermeulen, having started third, was Pepper’s main rival in the opening exchanges as he wrestled past the No. 2 ABT Sportsline Lamborghini of Nicki Thiim at the first corner before putting pressure on the South African.

Behind them, Preining also followed suit and passed Thiim to take third, while the Dane’s podium hopes were dashed when he was spun round after contact with Engel at the end of the opening lap, which race control deemed a racing incident.

After fending off an attack from Vermeulen into Turn 1, Pepper gradually pulled away from the Dutchman, opening up a gap of just under five seconds by the time the No. 69 Ferrari made its mandatory stop towards the end of the pitstop window.

Pepper came in a lap later and although a hiccup on the right rear resulted in a slightly slower stop, the No. 63 Lamborghini remained comfortably clear of the chasing pack.

Vermeulen was overtaken by both Preining and Engel on his outlap, but Pepper remained out of reach and was able to claim his maiden DTM victory in only his ninth race start in the series.

In the process, he followed in the footsteps of fellow South Africans Sheldon and Kelvin van der Linde, who both previously claimed race wins in the German sprint series.

Additionally, for Pepper, the win comes less than a week after he was part of Lamborghini’s breakthrough victory in the 24H Spa, which he also achieved with the Gottfried Grasser-led squad.

Lucas Auer finished sixth in the No. 22 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, followed by fellow Mercedes-AMG factory driver Jules Gounon in seventh and the No. 36 Ford Mustang GT3 driven by Arjun Maini.

Ricardo Feller and Rene Rast completed the overall top ten for Land Motorsport and Schubert Motorsport, respectively.