Thomas Preining has taken a dominant victory by 16 seconds in the first race of the DTM final round at Hockenheim, while Lucas Auer has held on to the points lead going into the title-decider finale.
The Manthey Porsche driver started Saturday’s race from third on the grid and moved into the lead on lap eight, going on to take an unchallenged victory ahead of Land Audi’s Ricardo Feller.
“Yes, this was obviously a very good day,” grinned Preining when speaking to ran.de. “I’m more than happy with it, but the job isn’t done yet. If we want to become champions, we need another performance like this tomorrow. So we’ll get the podium and press conference done, and then keep working.”
Manthey Porsche’s Morris Schuring celebrated his first DTM podium in third, as the Dutchman even launched a last-lap attack on Feller, but couldn’t find a way past the Audi driver.
Auer, who crashed in qualifying due to a slow puncture, managed to limit the damage in the race by taking 12th place and thus retained his lead in the overall standings.
Heavy rain forced the race start to be delayed by 25 minutes, with the field then set off behind the safety car.
Ricardo Feller, Land Motorsport Audi R8 LMS GT3
Photo by: ADAC Motorsport
When green-flag racing behind, polesitter Ben Green lost the lead at the hairpin which allowed team-mate Jack Aitken and Preining to slip past. Title contender Jordan Pepper also made a mistake, spinning and crashing his Grasser Lamborghini into the wall.
At the front, Preining began closing in on Aitken, putting the Emil Frey Ferrari driver under pressure. On lap eight, the 2023 DTM champion made the decisive move, overtaking the Briton and taking the lead.
After the pitstops, Aitken began to fade in the closing stages: first Feller moved up into second, then Schuring demoted the Briton from the podium. Maro Engel and Ayhancan Guven also passed the Ferrari driver, leaving Aitken sixth at the flag.
In addition to Pepper, who failed to score after his crash, two other title contenders also went home empty-handed on Saturday. Marco Wittmann had to make a second pitstop after a collision with Mirko Bortolotti, dropping out of the points.
Preining’s victory has moved him up to second in the standings, just three points behind Auer, with Rast in third. The top seven drivers are separated by just 13 points heading into the title decider on Sunday.
DTM Hockenheim – Race 1 results
Results to follow
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– The Autosport.com Team
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