Dennis Olsen wins race 1 of the DTM in Spa-Francorchamps with very tight teeth, showing a cool head on an unforgiving track.
Starting very well from the Pole Position, the SSR Performance boy controlled the situation without worries for almost the entire race, but in the last 4 ‘a sprinkling of the terrible rain in the first sector threatened to reshuffle the whole ranking.
Some suffered and slowed down, especially in the rear, while Olsen managed to keep his Porsche 911 GT3-R very well in front of the Mercedes-AMG driven by the reigning champion Maximilian Götz (Team Winward), who tried to mock his rival by also signing the fastest lap which is worth 1 point more.
In third place is Thomas Preining with the Porsche of Team Bernhard, protagonist of a masterful control at the start when he came into contact on the climb of the ‘Eau Rouge’ with the Mercedes of Lucas Auer who was threatening him.
Maximilian Gotz, Mercedes-AMG Team WINWARD Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3
Photo by: Alexander Trienitz
Crossing ahead of the rest of the group, Preining lost second place and even slipped eighth, but thanks to an excellent pace he managed to recover at least the podium.
Auer, who had been in the running for the win, retired on lap 15 and had a puncture in the front left, which gave way to those who followed the Team Winward standard bearer to gain positions.
Among these, René Rast certainly benefits, who with his usual determination makes the Audi R8 LMS of Team ABT rise to fourth place, surpassing that of his teammate Kelvin Van Der Linde in the final.
Sixth place for Nico Müller at the wheel of the Audi prepared by Team Rosberg, pushed by Rast to the ‘Eau Rouge’ with a beautiful move; the Swiss in the middle phase of the race had to defend himself for a long time from the assaults of the AF Corse Ferraris, but Felipe Fraga (with the 488 Red Bull) and Nick Cassidy (on the AlphaTauri) had to settle for seventh and tenth place respectively.
Mirko Bortolotti, Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan EVO GT3
Photo by: Alexander Trienitz
A final to forget for the New Zealander, overtaken on the last lap by a couple of rivals. One of these is Mirko Bortolotti, who started very backward following a bad qualifying and the author of a good recovery that earned the Lamborghini boy some precious points from a championship point of view.
Behind the Grasser Racing Team from Trentino is Marco Wittmann with the BMW M4 of Walkenhorst Motorsport, one of those who delayed the pit stop as much as possible and benefited from cooler tires in the final to overtake Cassidy.
Off the points are David Schumacher with Team Winward’s Mercedes and above all Sheldon Van Der Linde’s BMW; also the South African of Schubert Motorsport did not have a good Qualifying 1, but the comeback from 22nd place on the grid did not materialize with points.
Despite this, S. Van Der Linde is always first in the standings at 110, followed by Rast and Bortolotti who rise to 93, while Olsen becomes menacing at 87, overtaking Auer who remains at 86.
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