Van der Linde Leads Schubert BMW 1-2 at Norisring

Sheldon van der Linde took a lights-to-flag victory in the Saturday DTM race at the Norisring, leading home teammate Rene Rast to claim a 1-2 finish for Schubert Motorsport.

Van der Linde steered the No. 1 BMW M4 GT3 to the checkered flag ahead of Rast, with Dennis Olsen completing the podium aboard the No. 90 Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3 R.

The South African converted pole position to secure his first victory of the season in an incident-filled race that saw two safety car interventions.

Rast, meanwhile, came up from seventh on the grid to finish on the podium after missing the Zandvoort round due to a clash with the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship.

The German made his way up into the top three on the opening exchanges after a first lap that saw Thomas Preining first lose second place to Ayhancan Guven on the opening lap and then drop to eighth.

Rast held on to third through two safety car periods, with the race first getting neutralized when David Schumacher hit Luca Engstler at Turn 1, ending the Audi driver’s race.

After the restart, the tight hairpin again proved a crunch point a few minutes later when Jusuf Owega collided with the No. 92 SSR Performance Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 of Mirko Bortolotti, leading to another intervention.

Van der Linde retained the lead through the subsequent pitstop cycle, fending off a brief challenge from the No. 24 KÜS Team Bernhard Porsche of Ayhancan Guven.

Guven pitted last and emerged on track ahead of the South African, but then quickly dropped back as he was passed by the No. 1 BMW as well as Rast, Kelvin van der Linde, Dennis Olsen and Lucas Auer.

While Sheldon went on to take victory ahead of Rast, his brother saw a podium fall away when his No. 3 ABT Sportsline Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II became stuck in second gear with a few minutes to go.

Van der Linde retired, which allowed Olsen to complete the podium ahead of Auer, Guven and Bortolotti.

Maro Engel finished seventh, while Ricardo Feller, Marco Wittmann and Laurin Heinrich completed the top ten.

Franck Perera crossed the line in twelfth ahead of Preining, who suffered further delays due to a botched left-front tire change during his mandatory pitstop.

Arjun Maini, David Schumacher and Mick Wishofer claimed the final three points-scoring positions and rounded out the top fifteen.