Preining Grabs Points Lead as Wittmann, Doerr Triumph

Porsche driver Thomas Preining has grabbed the DTM points lead after extending his run of 2026 podiums to six at the Sachsenring last weekend, while the wins were shared by BMW’s Marco Wittmann and McLaren racer Ben Doerr.

Wittmann has vaulted into the title picture himself as the Schubert Motorsport driver scored his second consecutive victory in the first race.

He led from pole in his BMW M4 GT3 EVO and, although he briefly lost out to Jules Gounon’s Winward Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo following the pit stops, Wittmann was able to reclaim the lead as Gounon got his tires up to temperature.

Gounon did not let Wittmann escape in the closing stages but the German was able to hold on to take both his and BMW’s first triumph at the Sachsenring, while it was also Gounon’s first podium of the year.

Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo racer Preining completed the rostrum in third ahead of the BMW of Kelvin van der Linde, while former points leader Maro Engel was fifth on a day of damage limitation.

The Winward Mercedes-AMG driver had only started eighth after a three-place grid penalty for causing a collision at the previous round and therefore lost ground in the title race to Preining.

Fellow Mercedes-AMG pilot Lucas Auer’s title aspirations took a greater hit, however, as a wheel hub failure in qualifying left him at the back of the grid and he was only able to progress to 11th.

The second race started in tricky damp conditions and Bastian Buus took full advantage of the wet weather tires fitted to his Land Motorsport Porsche to take an early lead as the majority of the field began on slicks.

But it was not long before the track dried and it was Doerr’s McLaren 720S GT3 Evo that assumed the advantage on lap five as the Doerr Motorsport driver had already passed polesitter Engel.

The former points leader was slipping back at this stage of the race and was running sixth at the time of a late-race safety car following a clash between Gounon and Nicki Thiim’s Comtoyou Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo, which had finished sixth in the opener.

Engel tipped van der Linde into a spin at Turn 1 on the restart, which not only resulted in another caution but also led to a 15-second penalty for Engel that dropped him out of the points.

Doerr managed both restarts perfectly to resist pressure from Preining to take his second win of the year, but Preining now enjoys a 23-point margin at the head of the standings thanks to Engel’s woes.

The second Manthey Porsche of Ricardo Feller completed the podium, ahead of Matteo Cairoli’s Emil Frey Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo, Auer and Wittmann, who gained ten places from his grid position to now sit just a point back from Engel in the title race.

The event marked a return to DTM action for Maximilian Paul after he was injured at the Norisring round in July.

The German had made his racing comeback in the Italian GT Endurance Championship at Imola the previous weekend and the Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Temerario GT3 driver took a best result of tenth in race two at the Sachsenring.

An Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II was also back on the DTM grid for the first time this year thanks to a wildcard entry from Seyffarth Motorsport for Simon Connor Primm, who finished 15th in race one.

There is now just one round of the DTM campaign remaining, with the Hockenheim season finale scheduled for Oct. 10-11.