Preining Closes in on Title with Dominant Race 1 Win

Thomas Preining claimed a dominant second victory of the season during DTM Race 1 at Hockenheim, closing in on the drivers’ championship with one race remaining.

The Austrian converted pole position to lead a Manthey EMA 1-2, with the No. 91 Porsche 911 GT3 R crossing the line 0.624 seconds ahead of the sister car driven by Dennis Olsen.

The outcome of Saturday’s race means Manthey EMA clinched the teams’ title with a race to spare.

Christian Engelhart completed the podium aboard the No. 19 GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, ahead of Ricardo Feller and Mirko Bortolotti.

Bortolotti completed a pair of late-race overtakes to climb from seventh to fifth within the final fifteen minutes, narrowly keeping his championship hopes alive heading into Sunday’s decider.

The Italian now trails Preining by 27 points with 28 points still up for grabs, effectively meaning he needs a pole position and a race win to have any hopes of snatching the title away from the Porsche driver.

Bortolotti started the race from eighth place and climbed to seventh in the opening exchanges before attempting to gain ground with an early pitstop.

Quick work from the SSR Performance crew ensured the No. 92 car was able to jump ahead of the No. 3 ABT Sportsline Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Kelvin van der Linde in the pits, after which he appeared to also leapfrog Feller and Jack Aitken on the overcut.

However, Bortolotti then lost out as both the No. 14 Emil Frey Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 and Feller’s No. 7 Audi got by in a three-way battle before dropping behind Van der Linde just a few minutes later.

With eleven minutes remaining, Bortolotti retook sixth position from Van der Linde at Turn 8 and passed Aitken for fifth at the same corner with four minutes remaining.

The No. 3 Audi subsequently also got past Aitken, who crossed the line to finish seventh.

Luca Stolz, Marco Wittmann and Laurin Heinrich completed the top ten ahead of Thierry Vermeulen’s No. 69 Emil Frey Racing Ferrari and the No. 63 Lamborghini of Clemens Schmid.

Marvin Dienst, Franck Perera and Sheldon van der Linde picked up the final points, with the South African charging up from the penultimate spot on the grid.

RESULTS: Race 1