Emil Frey Ferrari’s Matteo Cairoli has secured his second win of the season in Sunday’s second DTM race at the Lausitzring to grab the lead in the overall standings, fending off a late charge by Comtoyou Aston Martin’s Nicki Thiim.
Thiim, who had already started from pole position the day before, put the Ferrari driver under massive pressure in the closing stages but despite his fresher tyres, the Dane could not find a way past and ultimately missed out on Aston Martin’s first DTM victory by just 0.413 seconds.
“The Dane really made me sweat, and I even had the air conditioning on in the car,” says a visibly worn-out and exhausted Cairoli on ProSieben. “He can’t hear this right now, but he really put me under pressure. At some point I thought: ‘Okay, everything is falling apart here with the tyres,’ because they were really done.”
The battle for the final podium spot was also intense: HRT Ford driver Arjun Maini, who had started Sunday’s race from pole position, had to concede to his young team-mate Finn Wiebelhaus in the closing laps. The 20-year-old rookie thus secured his first podium finish in the DTM.
Mirko Bortolotti took fifth for Grasser Lamborghini, his best result of the season so far, followed by fellow Lamborghini driver Luca Engstler for Abt.
The start of the race passed without any major chaos: Ford driver Maini initially converted his pole position into the lead, though already closely followed by Cairoli, Thiim and Wiebelhaus.
The safety car was triggered on the second lap to allow debris to be removed from the start-finish straight. The trigger for the first neutralisation was Maximilian Paul, whose Grasser Lamborghini had lost a large part of its rear bodywork.
Fourth-placed Wiebelhaus was the first driver to peel off for a tyire change from the frontrunners, while a few laps later Maini lost a position during the pitstop due to a slow pitstop which allowed Cairoli, who had come into the pits a lap earlier, to take the lead with his undercut.
While most drivers peeled off for service early, Thiim only headed for the pits shortly before the pitstop window closed. The Dane, who had no fresh tyres available after his tyre gamble on Saturday, slotted into the gap between Maini and Wiebelhaus and successfully defended his third place while getting his tyres up to temperature.
At the front, Cairoli was coming under pressure from Maini, as the Indian at times fought his way back up close to the Emil Frey Ferrari driver, but could not find a way past. Thiim was also able to close up to the two leaders before the second pitstop.
When the second pit stop window opened, Wiebelhaus was the first driver from the leading group to come into the pits. However, the tyre change at HRT once again did not go optimally, so the youngster could not use the possible undercut.
Once again, Thiim was the last driver from the leading group to come in for a tyre change at the second pitstop, which enabled him to get the overcut on Maini.
Matteo Cairoli, Emil Frey Racing Ferrari 296 EVO GT3
Photo by: ADAC Motorsport
Wiebelhaus closed in during the final phase and put the polesitter under pressure. The two HRT Ford drivers fought an intense duel for the final podium place. Two laps from the end, Wiebelhaus finally managed to pass his teammate and take over third place.
But at the front, Cairoli withstood late pressure from Thiim to take victory and with it the championship lead; the Ferrari driver now has 78 points to his name and pushes Lucas Auer (77 points) down to second place.
DTM Lausiztring – Race 2 results
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– The Autosport.com Team
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