Nick Cassidy has taken a liking to it and puts his signature on the second success in a row in the DTM by imposing himself in Race 1 at the Red Bull Ring.
After the great test two weeks ago at Spa-Francorchamps, the AF Corse driver was perfect from the start of the traffic lights, holding the first position from the Pole Position (inherited for the penalty given to poleman René Rast, relegated by 3 positions for contacts with Cassidy in Belgium) and flying towards a deserved triumph with the 488 branded AlphaTauri.
Cassidy did nothing wrong, immediately gaining a couple of seconds on Rast and Mirko Bortolotti, who for a long time continued arm in arm in the tight duel for the place of honor.
The New Zealander stopped last of the lot, on lap 25, and came back comfortably in front of Rast’s Audi R8 LMS, which with the second position brings home very precious points in terms of the championship, also giving Ferrari the 500th success of the 488 GT3 .
Behind the rider of the ABT Team is Bortolotti, who finds the podium again with the Lamborghini of the Grasser Racing Team; author of the fastest lap (worth 1 point), the bitterness remains in Trentino for having certainly had more pace than Rast in the first part, but without ever finding space to overtake him and also paying for the time lost at the pit stop for the front left that he didn’t want to stare at.
Mirko Bortolotti, Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan EVO GT3
Photo by: Alexander Trienitz
Lucas Auer and Thomas Preining took a bad blow instead, both penalized by 10 “and therefore to lose the Top 5. The local idol of Team Winward was fourth, but slips ninth with his Mercedes-AMG for not respecting the limit of speed in the pit lane, while the boy from Team Bernhard was punished after coming into contact for the umpteenth time with a rival, finishing 10th.
A shame because the Porsche driver had been the author of a spectacular war to catch up with his colleagues. Among these is Nico Müller, in fourth place with the Audi of Team Rosberg and ahead of that of Kelvin Van Der Linde (ABT Sportsline), author of a nice overtaking in the last round against the Mercedes of Maro Engel (GruppeM Racing).
Behind the German we find the Mercedes of Maximilian Götz (Team Winward), Luca Stolz (Team HRT) and Auer further away, plus Preining.
In the fight for the title, a setback for the leader Sheldon Van Der Linde: who qualified far behind with the BMW M4 of Schubert Motorsport, the South African climbs up to 11th place, but remains dry and now sees Rast approaching in the ranking and Bortolotti.
Even his teammate Philipp Eng, Arjun Maini with the Mercedes of Team HRT – found himself behind for a contact at the start – the BMW of Marco Wittmann (Walkenhorst Motorsport), the Audi of Ricardo Feller (ABT Sportsline), do not score points either. the Mercedes of David Schumacher (Team Winward) and Maximilian Buhk (Mucke Motorsport), Rolf Ineichen on the Lamborghini-GRT, the Audi of Marius Zug (Attempto Racing) and Dev Gore (Team Rosberg), and Alessio Deledda with the other Lamborghini- Surviving GRT.
Several contacts, especially at the start, have knocked out the Porsche SSR Performance driven by Dennis Olsen and Laurens Vanthoor, the AF Corse Ferrari in Red Bull livery entrusted to Felipe Fraga, the Mercedes of Mikael Grenier (GruppeM Racing), the BMW of rookie L.Kohler (Walkenhorst) and Clemens Schmid’s Lamborghini-GRT.
In the drivers’ standings now S.Van Der Linde remains at 130 points, followed by 117 by Rast and 110 by Bortolotti, with Auer still in the race at 100 points.
#DTM #CassidyFerrari #Symphony #Race #Red #Bull #Ring