The smiling winner of the second DTM race at the Nurburgring is Marco Wittmann: the Schubert BMW driver, who started from sixth on the grid, benefited from his rivals’ mistakes after the start and at the first pit stop to snatch his third DTM victory in the Eifel overall.
“A superb race,” Wittmann said happily on ProSieben. “A very wild race, especially in the early stages, but we were able to stay out of all of that and run exactly the right strategy with our undercut. A really strong weekend with first and third place. So I’m very satisfied.”
Mercedes-AMG had started the race with big ambitions, but endured a medium-sized debacle on Sunday: Maro Engel (Winward-Mercedes) and Lucas Auer (Landgraf-Mercedes) collided shortly after the start, while polesitter Jules Gounon (Winward-Mercedes) ultimately finished only 14th, partly as a result of a penalty.
The only joy for the brand with the three-pointed star: Tom Kalender drove a faultless race and, thanks to his fresh tyres, fought his way to second place in the closing stages, and with it his first podium finish in the DTM. Thomas Preining (Manthey-Porsche) completed the podium in third.
“Of course I would have liked to stay in front, but no chance,” the Austrian admitted on ProSieben. “I think the tyre was that much fresher, not just eight or ten laps, but it was certainly a dominant performance from them. Basically, of course, I’m very happy with how the race played out. It couldn’t have gone better for us.”
Arjun Maini (HRT-Ford) finished fourth, followed by Mirko Bortolotti (Grasser-Lamborghini) and Abt-Lamborghini driver Lucas Engstler. Nicki Thiim (Comtoyou-Aston-Martin) reached the finish line in seventh, ahead of Timo Glock in the Dorr-McLaren. Marco Mapelli (Abt-Lamborghini) and Bastian Buus (Land-Porsche) completed the top 10 on Sunday.
Mercedes-AMG suffered its first setback of the day shortly after the start, when championship leader Engel tangled with fellow Mercedes driver Auer. The Austrian spun as a result and subsequently also took Kelvin van der Linde (Schubert-BMW) out of the race. All three drivers had to park their damaged cars early.
“I need to look at it again closely, but it looks like it’s my mistake,” Engel immediately took the blame in an interview with ProSieben. “I need to check again whether I maybe got a [hit] from behind, I don’t know. But at first glance I’d say, my mistake.”
After a short safety car period, polesitter Gounon defended his lead from Ben Dorr (Dorr-McLaren) and the previous day’s winner Matteo Cairoli in the Emil-Frey-Ferrari. Bortolotti (Grasser-Lamborghini), meanwhile, had to drive through the penalty lap once because of a jump start, which dropped him to the back of the field early on.
Marco Wittmann benefits from pit-stop chaos
When the first of two pit-stop windows opened shortly afterwards, eighth-placed Engstler was the first driver from the top 10 to come in for a tyre change. Behind him, Ricardo Feller (Manthey-Porsche), Thierry Vermeulen (Emil-Frey-Ferrari) and Buus also opted for an early stop. Wittmann came in three laps later, on lap 12.
As on the previous day, there was also some hard racing on Sunday: the three-way battle between Kalender, Engstler and Feller particularly delighted the spectators, as the trio overtook each other several times, in some cases even with light contact.
The leading group took significantly longer than the midfield drivers to make their first pit stop. Dorr finally came in on lap 16 as the first driver from the top three, but the Dorr crew made another mistake and failed to attach the right-front wheel properly.
The McLaren youngster made it back onto the track, but slid straight on at the very first corner. Gounon and Cairoli came in one lap later: while the Winward team’s stop was perfect, Emil-Frey had an issue with the left-rear wheel.
Cairoli’s stop therefore lasted almost 25 seconds, which dropped the Italian as far as 11th place. The beneficiary of the pit-stop chaos was Marco Wittmann, who got past Nicki Thiim, who lost a lot of time in the pit lane behind the struggling Dorr, and therefore moved up to second place.
Gounon loses lead because of pit-stop infringement
To allow the stranded Dorr-McLaren to be recovered safely, the safety car came out for a second time. Bitter for Gounon: because the Frenchman was too fast in the pit lane during his stop, the Mercedes driver had to drive through the penalty lap once after the race was released.
As a result, the Frenchman dropped to sixth place and shortly afterwards also had to concede to fellow Mercedes driver Kalender. Wittmann therefore took the lead for the first time, followed by Manthey-Porsche driver Thomas Preining and Nicki Thiim.
After the second safety car, there were further duels in the midfield, including between Bortolotti and Finn Wiebelhaus in the second HRT-Ford. For the rookie, the contact ended with a puncture. Race control briefly looked at the incident, but did not issue a penalty to any of those involved.
Arjun Maini, who was running on fresh tyres after his early retirement the previous day, had already fought his way up to fourth place by this point. Shortly afterwards, the second pit-stop window opened, with the Indian driver the first to turn in for another tyre change.
Tom Kalender takes first podium finish in the DTM
The top three came in for their second stop a few laps later, with no changes initially resulting. Third-placed Thiim, however, could not really get going again afterwards. The Dane first had to concede to AMG driver Kalender before Engstler and Maini also went past.
At the front, the top three closed up: Kalender put Preining under pressure in the final laps and, shortly before the chequered flag fell, pulled off a strong move to get past the 2023 DTM champion. The 18-year-old, who had already finished fourth once at the season opener at the Red-Bull-Ring, is celebrating his first DTM podium.
Only 20 cars started Sunday’s race: Christian Engelhart, who was in action at the Nurburgring as a replacement for the injured Maximilian Paul, was unable to take any further part in the race. His Grasser-Lamborghini was too badly damaged in the heavy accident with Thierry Vermeulen in the closing stages of Saturday’s race.
Maro Engel keeps DTM points lead, but …
Winward-Mercedes driver Maro Engel retains the lead in the overall standings despite his retirement, but Thomas Preining (Manthey-Porsche) has closed to within one point thanks to his third place on Sunday. Nicki Thiim (Comtoyou-Aston-Martin) is in third place, 21 points behind.
“We’re leaving only one point behind, who would have thought that,” Preining said, sending out a warning to his rivals. “But I think it’s deserved and I think we can be pleased about it.”
The 2026 DTM season now enters its decisive phase, with only four races remaining on the schedule in total: the next two races take place in four weeks at the Sachsenring (11 to 13 September), before the new DTM champion is crowned at the finale in Hockenheim (09 to 11 October).
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– The Autosport.com Team
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