Nicki Thiim enjoyed a perfect weekend at the Norisring with a double victory and with it the DTM championship lead.
Polesitter Thiim defended his lead several times during the race against HRT Ford youngster Finn Wiebelhaus, but the 20-year-old found no way past and had to settle for second, with Lucas Auer taking third for the Landgraf Mercedes squad.
The safety car was called early on after several rear-end collisions in the midfield which left debris scattered across the track.
Among the biggest sufferers of the chaos were Maro Engel, who damaged the front section of his Winward Mercedes.
In the following laps, the rain became increasingly heavy, but none of the drivers took the risk of switching to rain tyres before the pitstop window opened and risked losing time. A collision between Emil Frey Ferrari’s Matteo Cairoli and Marco Mapelli in the Abt Lamborghini required another safety car period, which then turned into a red flag due to the conditions.
During the 10-minute pause, all teams were able to switch to rain tyres and undertake running repairs, before a restart took place after two laps behind the safety car.
DTM Qualifying Norisring 2: BMW and Porsche at the back again for Thiim pole
Photo by: ADAC Motorsport
At the front, Wiebelhaus sensed his chance and put Thiim under pressure, but his attack was unsuccessful. Further back, Timo Glock had to park his Dorr -McLaren after touching the ‘Wall of Champions'” and damaging the rear suspension.
Wiebelhaus was among the first drivers to switch to slicks when the track dried sufficiently, with Thiim pitting three laps later and got back out directly in front of the HRT Ford driver.
By the time the second pitstop window opened, Wiebelhaus had to drop back again. Both the Ford driver and race leader Thiim waited significantly longer than the competition for their second stop, with the pursuer again making the first move.
Wiebelhaus’ possible undercut did not pay off for the second time due to a slow stop by the HRT team, meaning the Dane remained in the lead and duly took his third victory in the DTM.
Thanks to his double victory Thiim leads the overall standings by nine points from Lucas Auer, while Maro Engel has dropped to third place, two further points back..
After the heavy crash in the first race on Saturday, only 19 drivers took the start on Sunday: Maximilian Paul (Grasser Lamborghini) and Kelvin van der Linde (Schubert BMW) were unable to contest the Sunday race due to their injuries and the severe damage to their cars, respectively.
DTM Norisring – Race 2 results
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– The Autosport.com Team
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