A Super Thomas Preining also takes the Pole Position for Race 2 and with the 3 points earned he wins the 2023 DTM drivers’ title.
The Porsche driver showed up at the last event of the year in amazing form, as already seen yesterday when he went for a pole position and victory in the first round of the weekend.
The efforts of a moving Mirko Bortolotti were to no avail, as 2′ from the end of this morning’s session he went to put the SSR Performance Lamborghini ahead of everyone, hoping to keep the game open and go for broke in the race for this afternoon.
Preining was behind him and shortly afterwards he took away the record by just 0″006 with a time of 1’36″800, closing the discussions in favor of the Manthey EMA team and being able to present himself with a light heart at the start of the afternoon race, having a +28 in the championship standings when there are 25 points available for the winner.
“I’m really very happy and I still struggle to believe it. In the DTM we know that sometimes we can go very fast and at others we live through nightmares. This time my dream has come true, so I’m very happy”, said Preining emotionally.
“Now we’re trying to do even better in the race, without pressure and trying to have fun until the end, despite the extra kilos that have been assigned to our car.”
“It was a very difficult season, but I never had any doubts that we could win. Certainly succeeding is different because here the fight is very close, so I struggle to explain the emotions I’m feeling now.”
Photo by: Alexander Trienitz
Thomas Preining, Manthey EMA
“We came here to try, the objective was to get to the front row and I managed to do a fantastic lap which I was very happy and proud of”, commented Bortolotti as he got out of the Huracan.
“Unfortunately I lost Pole by just 6 thousandths, so I can only offer great compliments to Thomas, with whom I fought strenuously until the end of the year. Well done to Porsche and Manthey for taking the title, congratulations to them”.
“There is still one race this afternoon, so we will try to finish on a high note by obtaining a high-level result for the team.”
![Mirko Bortolotti, SSR Performance Lamborghini Huracán EVO GT3](https://cdn-2.motorsport.com/images/mgl/YP3aJjj2/s1000/mirko-bortolotti-ssr-performan-1.jpg)
Photo by: Alexander Trienitz
Mirko Bortolotti, SSR Performance Lamborghini Huracán EVO GT3
Behind Bortolotti are Luca Stolz with the HRT Mercedes and the outgoing champion Sheldon Van Der Linde at the wheel of the Schubert Motorsport BMW, while in the Top5 there is Laurin Heinrich armed with the Team75 Porsche, followed by the Ferrari of Thierry Vermeulen (Emil Frey Racing), all within a couple of tenths of a second from the top.
Kelvin Van Der Linde confirms himself as the best of the Audis with the R8 LMS of ABT Sportsline, placing seventh, ahead of the Lamborghini of Christian Engelhart (GRT), while Ayhançan Guven (Porsche-Team75) and Maro Engel (Mercedes-Mann Filter) complete the Top10 .
Jack Aitken remains out of this one in the other Ferrari of Emil Frey Racing, which however keeps behind the Audi of Ricardo Feller (ABT Sportsline), the Mercedes of David Schumacher (Team Winward), the BMW of Marco Wittmann (Project 1 ), plus Arjun Maini and Jusuf Owega in the Mercedes of HRT and BWT.
Only 17th Dennis Olsen with the second Porsche of Manthey Ema, 20th Mattia Drudi driving the Tresor Orange 1 Audi.
Race 2 is scheduled for 1.30pm.
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