Marco Wittmann took his first DTM win in two years in the second race at Zolder as well as a debut victory in the series for Walkenhorst Motorsport. The German led from start to finish despite a strong challenge from Lucas Auer and Maxi Götz.
DTM ZOLDER: RACE 1 REPORT | QUALIFYING 2 REPORT | RACE 2 REPORT | INTERVIEW MARCO WITTMANN | INTERVIEW NICLAS KÖNIGBAUER | GALLERY
Wittmann held the lead into turn one but further back Vincent Abril got turned around by Mercedes-AMG Team Winward’s Philip Ellis and fell to the back of the pack. Problems in qualifying left Abril in the midfield at the start and susceptible to mid-pack trauma.
He completed one further lap but had to abandon the car at the end of the start-finish straight as the rear left suspension gave up the ghost and brought out a safety car. Ellis received a drive through penalty which ended his hopes for a good recovering from bad luck with the red flag in qualifying, coming home in 15th at the end.
Wittmann was flying at the front, and following an early pit stop, returned to the track in fourth place.
Further down the field Ellis was leading a train of cars with Kelvin van der Linde unable to clear Ellis at the stops. Behind him was Team Abt Sportsline’s Mike Rockefeller who was defending from Esteban Muth’s #10 T3 Motorsport Lamborghini Huracán GT3 who had been steadily coming through the field. Muth took the position with a move up the inside at turn two and was away after Van der Linde. In the space of two laps, the 19-year-old Muth was with the #3 Abt Sportsline Audi R8 LMS GT3 driver who had to defend for all he was worth to keep the youngster behind him.
Sheldon van der Linde was the last to pit and emerged directly in front of his brother who had lost time to Ellis as he fended off the attentions of Muth.
With five laps remaining, Wittmann was comfortable at the front but Lucas Auer in the #22 Mercedes-AMG Team Winward Mercedes-AMG GT3 was pushing him hard. Carrying a 5-second penalty for a pit stop in infringement, Auer was working hard to make up the difference knowing that he was realistically fighting for sixth place behind Nico Müller.
Müller himself was chasing down AF Corse’s Liam Lawson but didn’t have enough time to clear the Kiwi who benefited from Auer’s penalty to take the final podium spot behind Maxi Götz — the latter driving a steady race to take second place.
The result puts Götz up to third place in the championship just 8 points behind Lawson who himself is 22 points behind championship leader Kelvin van der Linde.
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