Thomas Prening is the winner of an amazing Race 2 of the DTM at the Red Bull Ring, where from the first to the last lap the emotions were wasted giving a race to see and see again later for the true fans of motors and sports.
The heavy rain had already shuffled the cards this morning in Qualifying, but it stopped falling a few moments before the start, which took place after two laps completed behind the Safety Car in order not to take any risks, given the amount of water present on the Spielberg track. .
Here the poleman Maro Engel tried to immediately take off against Nick Cassidy, Philipp Eng and Felipe Fraga, but already at the hairpin here is the twist, with championship leader Sheldon Van Der Linde – who started 15th due to a retreat of 9 positions due to an irregularity after Race 1 – to end up in a spin.
The first part of the race was a succession of overtaking and attack attempts to be lived with bated breath, highlighting the qualities of the drivers; in particular, it was Preining who shone, recovering positions with determination at the wheel of his Porsche and getting to see the podium.
The pit stops were decisive over the course of about 60 ‘of battles, because with the bottom drying up it could be more favorable to wait for the finish and risk slicks.
Who stopped first of all was Luca Stolz (lap 7), 11th after the first lap and found himself able to push the track free from the last place. The HRT Team rider had a double chance because first he made the most of the fresh wet tires (while others wasted time fighting each other), then they wore out in the final becoming in fact slicks, thus giving way to the German not to lose too much ground towards an irrepressible Preining.
Team bishop Bernhard took command of operations just before stopping in the pits to replace the covers of his 911 and when he returned to the track on lap 24, he was given the green light to fly to success in front of his audience.
The Mercedes-AMG teams have been waiting for practically all the moment for the dry tires and, with the exception of Stolz who had now consolidated his second place, the final to be avoided by heart patients saw Engel recover at least the third step of the podium with the car of the GruppeM, closely followed by that of Arjun Maini (Team HRT).
Big difficulties for the BMWs, given that instead the teams preparing the M4 did not want to risk continuing on the wet tires. This led Eng’s M4 to suffer enormously in the final, with the Schubert Motorsport driver struggling to take at least the Top5, ahead of the Winward Racing Mercedes in the hands of Lucas Auer and Maximilian Götz.
Of the latter two, the Austrian is the one who smiles the most. Having regained the points placement of Race 1 on Saturday evening (penalty of 10 “removed, as in Preining), the local idol also earns the additional point for the fastest lap, remaining among the candidates to conquer the title.
Among these is Mirko Bortolotti, author of another spectacular comeback from 22nd to 9th, behind Nico Müller’s Audi R8 (Team Rosberg). For the Lamborghini-GRT driver, among those to mount slicks in the final, a couple of precious points that still keep the hopes of becoming Champion open, even if it must be said that it is up to him to get by, given the decidedly inferior performance of his teammates who are unlikely to be able to give him a hand in the contest (unlike rivals).
The points zone is completed by the Porsche of Dennis Olsen (SSR Performance), mocking the Audi of René Rast (Team ABT), dry even if mathematically in the race for the first place in the drivers’ standings.
Behind the German there is the leader of the ranking, S.Van Der Linde, who despite having had the slicks on his Schubert-branded BMW was unable to get back on top, overcoming those of Walkenhorst Motorsport led by Marco Wittmann and Leon in the final. Köhler.
The AF Corse Ferraris are also bad because Cassidy suffers from the dry track finish and sadly finds himself 19th with the 488 in AlphaTauri livery, while his colleague Felipe Fraga (with the Red Bull one) was fighting for the podium when a contact with Eng slipped him back, only to make two mistakes and ended up spinning and finishing in 16th place.
In the drivers’ standings now S.Van Der Linde is still first with 130 points, but Auer climbs to 119, overtaking Rast, who remains at 117. Preining earns fourth place with 116 points and the chance to fight for the title, as does Bortolotti which is at 112. Stolz is more detached at 102, but with 58 points up for grabs in the last round of Hockenheim everything is still wide open.
#DTM #Preining #wins #amazing #Race #reopens #series