Wittmann Victorious in Red-Flagged Zandvoort Race 2

Marco Wittmann ended a DTM win drought of over 600 days by taking victory in an incident-filled, red-flagged Race 2 at Zandvoort.

The No. 11 Schubert Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 crossed the line 7.239 seconds clear of the No. 92 SSR Performance Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 of Mirko Bortolotti to win.

It marks Wittmann’s first DTM win since the 2022 season finale at Hockenheim, thus bringing an end to a winless period that stretched 610 days.

A late pitstop allowed the German to leapfrog to the lead during this weekend’s second of two 60-minute races, which notably started later three hours than normal so that a number of drivers, including Wittmann, could take part in the 24 Hours of Le Mans test day.

The No. 11 Schubert BMW ran seventh at the time of a mid-race safety car, which delayed the pitstop window and was triggered when Ayhancan Guven was pitched into the Hunzerug barriers as a result of a left-rear puncture.

That was the second time the race was interrupted, with an initial opening lap safety car upgraded to a red flag for a multi-car incident that eliminated Clemens Schmid and Lucas Auer from the race.

Schmid spun across the track after contact with Maro Engel, which forced the field to pack up and resulted in multiple cars suffering damage.

That included Wittmann, who completed the remainder of the race with a damaged right front after reported contact with Auer, which eliminated the No. 22 Mercedes-AMG Team Winward Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo from the race.

By the time of the second safety car, Bortolotti was in control of the race ahead of pole sitter Maximilian Paul, the No. 69 Emil Frey Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 of Thierry Vermeulen and the Kelvin van der Linde-driven No. 3 ABT Sportsline Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II.

However, Wittmann pitted last during the mandatory pitstop window and emerged on track ahead of Bortolotti, with the two then engaging in a heated battle that resulted in rear left damage to the BMW.

Wittmann was able to pull clear while Bortolotti came under increased pressure from Van der Linde, who in turn had leapfrogged ahead of Vermeulen.

The three drivers battled for the remaining podium position in the closing minutes, with Bortolotti finishing second ahead of Van der Linde, Vermeulen, Luca Stolz and Arjun Maini.

Rene Rast and Sheldon van der Linde finished seventh and eighth, with Paul and the No. 91 Manthey EMA Porsche of Thomas Preining completing the top ten.

Van der Linde, Paul, Preining, Ricardo Feller, Maro Engel and Luca Engstler fought a hard battle for eighth, ninth, tenth and eleventh heading into the final lap.

Feller finished eleventh ahead of Engstler and Engel, while Nicki Thiim and Ben Doerr scored the last available points.

Saturday race winner Jack Aitken came home in 16th, his run curtailed by a botched pitstop that saw him accidentally drive into Haupt Racing Team’s box and was then ordered to serve three penalty laps for a pitlane infringement.

RESULTS: Race 2