Manthey EMA’s Thomas Preining dominated Saturday’s penultimate race of the DTM season at the Hockenheimring, winning by almost 17 seconds in his Porsche 911 GT3 R (992).
The victory catapulted the 2023 champion from eighth in the table to second place, giving him a good chance of clinching the DTM title for a second time on Sunday.
“A super day for us! That win means I am right back in the thick of the title race. This is exactly what we have been working toward. However, the job is not yet done. We want to be champions and need another top result on Sunday,” said Preining, whose success also helped Manthey EMA to secure the Teams’ title with one race still to come.
Second place went to Land-Motorsport’s Ricardo Feller in an Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo2. Rookie Morris Schuring came home third for Manthey Junior Team, claiming the first podium of his DTM career.
It was a case of damage limitation for Mercedes-AMG Team Landgraf’s drivers’ championship leader Lucas Auer, who climbed five places to finish 12th. That was enough to ensure he remains at the top of the table with 175 points, three ahead of Preining, with six further drivers still in title contention.
Heavy rain made for difficult conditions at the start of the penultimate race of the season at the Hockenheimring. Lap one saw pole-sitter Ben Green concede the lead to his Emil Frey Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 team-mate Jack Aitken after a mistake under braking. Shortly after, he was also powerless to prevent Preining from passing him.
The Austrian then took full advantage of his strength and that of the 911 on a wet track. He pulled off a skilful manoeuvre on lap eight to take the lead, and then set fast lap times as he pulled clear of the opposition.
Feller and Schuring also passed Green, who found himself in freefall. Jordan Pepper also endured a disappointing race: the TGI Team Lamborghini by GRT racer was forced out of the race on lap four after a collision with another car. However, despite dropping to sixth place in the table, he is still among the drivers in with a shout of winning the title.
Preining was the last driver to come in for his mandatory pit stop, and he returned to the track with a lead of roughly ten seconds over Aitken. The 27-year-old continued to dominate from the front in the closing stages and, after 32 laps of racing, took the chequered flag and the race win. Aitken, on the other hand, was unable to match the pace of the front-runners after the tyre change, and was passed by several rivals.
The final order behind Preining was as follows: Feller, Schuring, Mercedes-AMG Team Winward Racing’s Maro Engel, Preining’s teammate Ayhancan Güven and Aitken. The battle between Schuring and Feller was particularly spectacular: the Porsche youngster attacked the Swiss driver on the final lap, but Feller was ultimately able to hold onto second place by a mere 0.11 seconds.
Behind Aitken, in seventh place, was René Rast in a Schubert Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 Evo. The three-time DTM champion is third in the overall standings, six points behind Auer. Engel, Güven, Pepper, Aitken and the second Schubert Motorsport BMW of Marco Wittmann complete the list of remaining title contenders with one race to go.
Nicki Thiim produced an impressive display in his Abt Sportsline Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2 to finish eighth, ahead of a fellow Lamborghini driver, Grasser’s Luca Engstler, and Green.
Feller said: “We want to end the DTM season on a high, and what better way to do that than with a podium at the finale. The key to finishing second was primarily to avoid taking any unnecessary risks in these difficult conditions. I am proud to achieve a result like this, even carrying the 20 kilos of success ballast from the Red Bull Ring.”
Schuring said: “A podium in the DTM has been my big goal since the start of the season. As such, it is particularly nice to have finally achieved that goal at the finale. When battling with Jack Aitken, I was aware that I was racing against a title contender. I did not want to risk taking him out, so I remained patient and then overtook him in front of the fans in the Sachskurve. One lap more, and I would probably also have overtaken Ricardo Feller.”
Images courtesy of DTM
