Preining Passes Rast to Secure Sunday Norisring Win

Thomas Preining overtook Rene Rast in the Sunday DTM race at the Norisring to deliver victory for Manthey EMA.

The Austrian, piloting the No. 91 Porsche 911 GT3 R, completed a forceful pass on the No. 33 Schubert Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 of Rene Rast at the Grundig Kehre with 21 minutes remaining.

From there, Preining opened up a gap of 2.1 seconds over the three-time DTM champion.

The No. 91 Porsche started the race from second position, but dropped back to fourth on the opening lap as he was overtaken by both the No. 1 BMW of Sheldon van der Linde and Ayhancan Guven’s No. 24 KÜS Team Bernhard Porsche.

After the mandatory stops, Preining rejoined the circuit narrowly behind Van der Linde and overtook him into the Turn 1 hairpin with just under 30 minutes remaining.

Preining then chased down and caught Rast, diving up the inside of the German’s BMW at the same corner and making contact as he wrestled his way through into the lead.

Van der Linde completed the podium, marking the second time this weekend that both Schubert Motorsport entries finished on the podium.

Mirko Bortolotti finished fourth aboard the No. 92 SSR Performance Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, passing the No. 3 ABT Sportsline Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II fashion in a similarly contact-heavy fashion at the Dutzendteich Kehre.

Dennis Olsen finished sixth, ahead of Lauren Heinrich and Guven’s No. 24 Porsche.

The Turkish driver dropped down the order after serving a penalty lap for spinning his wheels on the air jacks during his pitstop.

The top ten was completed by Maro Engel and Luca Stolz.

The start of the race was delayed by nearly fifteen minutes after multiple people attempted to enter the circuit near Turn 1 before the start of the formation lap.

A DTM spokesperson told Sportscar365 that the track needed to be cleaned after the individuals poured fluid on the track, resulting in the delay. Another person attempted to tie himself to a fence.

All people involved were removed from the track and the race ran interrupted afterwards.

RESULTS: Race 2