A late race pass from Jack Aitken on Rene Rast saw the Briton take the win in Sunday’s second Lausitzring race of the weekend in his Emil Frey Racing Ferrari 296 GT3.
“What a race! I got closer and closer to René Rast during those final laps and I was able to apply real pressure. But I was not expecting to get a chance to overtake him so close to the end of the race. We want to be battling for the title this season, so we need regular top results,” explained Aitken.
Rast secured second place in a photo finish to the fourth DTM race of the season – crossing the line just 0.045 seconds ahead of Jules Gounon in the Mercedes-AMG.
Sunday’s race at the Lausitzring saw plenty of tough wheel-to-wheel duels and numerous overtaking manoeuvres.
While pole-setter Aitken and BMW driver Marco Wittmann managed to hold on to their leading positions, Rast worked his way up from eighth to third place. He was followed by Maro Engel in the Mercedes-AMG GT3 and Thierry Vermeulen in the second Ferrari from Emil Frey Racing, in fourth and fifth respectively.
Aitken and Rast were able to extend their advantage to around eight seconds, with Wittmann dropping back as he struggled with braking issues.
Rast enjoyed the strategic advantage, moving into the lead after the first of two mandatory pit stops and appearing to be on course for victory with a solid four-second lead after the second service. However, Aitken refused to give up and closed the gap as the end of the race approached.
On the penultimate lap, he produced a spectacular overtaking manoeuvre to grab the lead from Rast, claiming his fifth win in the DTM after 42 laps.
Rast was followed by Gounon, lapping faster as the race progressed, with Jordan Pepper fourth in the Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2 and Engel finishing in fifth place.
Reigning champion Mirko Bortolotti raced well in the Lamborghini from Abt Sportsline, producing a great performance to move up from 20th to sixth position. Vermeulen finished seventh in his Ferrari, while Wittmann overcame technical problems to cross the line in eighth place.
Championship leader Lucas Auer finished ninth in the Mercedes-AMG GT3, defending his lead in the overall standings ahead of Gounon. Timo Glock finished tenth, placing his McLaren 720S GT3 Evo in the points for the first time this season.
René Rast: “Of course, it’s annoying to lose out on the win two laps before the finish. But I hardly had any traction by the end and I couldn’t accelerate out of the turns so well. However, second place is still a good result, considering that I started from eighth. With the third place on Saturday, it was a successful weekend overall.”
Jules Gounon: “That was a really crazy race with so many battles, brilliant for the spectators. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the pace at the start and I would have thought a podium finish was impossible. Things went much better after the first pit stop and in the end, I was just a few centimetres away from finishing second.”
