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Rast Heads BMW 1-2 On Sunday

After dramas on Saturday, it was a perfect race on Sunday for René Rast and his Schubert Motorsport team in the DTM at Zandvoort.

The 38-year-old produced a contained performance at the wheel of his BMW M4 GT3 Evo, completing a comfortable lights-to-flag victory ahead of his team-mate Marco Wittmann.

“That was an intense race. Particularly towards the end, when Marco Wittmann was able to apply some pressure again. In the end, it was good enough for the win – thanks in part to two good pit stops,” said Sunday’s winner. Behind the BMW duo, Thomas Preining (Manthey EMA) finished third in a Porsche 911 GT3 R to take his place on the podium for the second time.

Shortly after the start, as Pole-sitter Rast successfully held onto his lead at the start, Wittmann, starting from third, immediately overtook Jack Aitken (Emil Frey Racing) in the Ferrari 296 GT3 to move into second place. Aitken was followed in fourth by Preining. Mercedes-AMG driver Maro Engel (\Mercedes-AMG Team Winward Racing) raced through from twelfth to fifth place.

After the first pit stop, Preining climbed into third place: the Austrian had come in to switch to fresh Pirelli slicks one lap before Aitken and was soon able to use his warm tyres to overtake the Brit.
They all held onto their positions after the second tyre change. Wittmann then gave it everything in his 200th DTM race, but 0.3 seconds was ultimately as close as he could get to Rast at the head of the field.
The three-time champion took the chequered flag ahead of Wittmann after 35 laps of racing. In doing so, he claimed his 29th DTM victory and climbed into second place in the table after six races. Preining held onto third place ahead of the charging Aitken, while Engel rounded out the top five after a strong display.

The best-placed Lamborghini driver was Luca Engstler (TGI Team Lamborghini by GRT) in sixth. Mercedes-AMG works driver Lucas Auer (Mercedes-AMG Team Landgraf) finished seventh to extend his championship lead by three points. Fellow Mercedes-AMG driver Jules Gounon from Mercedes-AMG Team Mann-Filter ended the sixth race of the DTM season in eighth place. Mirko Bortolotti (Abt Sportsline) made up six positions and came home ninth in his Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2. Arjun Maini (HRT Ford Performance) produced a similar fightback, battling through from 16th to finish tenth in his Ford Mustang GT3.

RACE 2 RESULT >>