Kelvin van der Linde crowned his 25th birthday with his maiden DTM victory in the Sunday race at Monza.
In the morning, the South African had already celebrated his first DTM pole position with his ABT Sportsline-run Audi.
With DTM runner-up Nico Müller (Team Rosberg) in second place, it was a 1-2 for Audi.
Classified third was Lucas Auer in his Mercedes-AMG/Team WINWARD AMG GT3.
“This is a proud moment for me,” a buoyant Kelvin van der Linde said. “I have been working hard to get into DTM for such a long time. Now, both my brother Sheldon and I have scored DTM race wins. Surely, our parents are over the moon.” His brother Sheldon, three years younger, had arrived in DTM with BMW in 2019 and had scored his maiden win last year. Nico Müller was also visibly happy, showing together with third-placed Lucas Auer that the seasoned DTM stars are also able to keep up with the GT specialists. “This is a very good start of the new season for us,” Müller said. “I had some hard fights and I am already looking forward to the next duels. That was a really good DTM season opener.”
DTM, run in 2021 with GT3-spec cars for the first time, started their new era in Monza, the event seeing plenty of close racing, including a fine battle between ex-DTM champion Mike Rockenfeller with his ABT Audi and 19-year-old Belgian Esteban Muth with his T3 Lamborghini.
Over many laps, the rookie and the stalwart battled, driving side by side through the corners at top speeds while fighting for eighth place. For several laps, ‘Rocky’ was having a tough time. He only made his way past Muth with a spectacular manoeuvre on the outside on the penultimate lap.
Tight qualifying: five brands among the first six places
How close it is in DTM already became clear by the open battle for pole position in qualifying on Sunday morning. Eventually, five brands were represented among the first six positions: Audi, Ferrari, BMW, Lamborghini and Mercedes-AMG. It was Kelvin van der Linde who claimed pole position. Almost, the two South African brothers Kelvin and Sheldon had even locked out the front row of the grid, but in the final stages, Saturday’s race winner Liam Lawson just managed to split the brother pairing with the Red Bull Ferrari.
As on Saturday, the race start was completed without significant incident. Kelvin van der Linde stayed out in front with his Audi and was already able to pull away a few metres coming out of the first chicane.
Nico Müller mounted his first challenge against Liam Lawson going into the second lap and went past the Ferrari driver in the chicane. The battle for second remained very close as four cars, racing three abreast at times, put on the style: Müller with the Audi, Lawson with the Ferrari, Sheldon van der Linde with the BMW and Esteban Muth with the Lamborghini.
Eventually, 22-year-old Sheldon van der Linde came out on top in this four-way battle and at the end of the second lap, the two South African brothers were running first and second. The battles for positions behind the two brothers continued: Muth and Lawson went through a chicane side-by-side, Saturday race winner Lawson came out second best, spun and dropped to the back of the field.
The field got already mixed up after five laps as no less than seven cars headed into the pit lane for the mandatory tyre change. While Sheldon van der Linde and Muth lost time in the process, Lucas Auer made up three positions courtesy of his tactics and a fresh set of Michelin tyres and moved up into third place. The last one to get new tyres was Sophia Flörsch at the end of lap eleven, leading the race briefly as a consequence.
Kelvin van der Linde, meanwhile, was safely in control as the race leader and went on to take the chequered flag with a four-second margin, followed home by Nico Müller and Lucas Auer. Sheldon van der Linde achieved the best result for BMW to date in fourth place while Muth scored the first points for Lamborghini by finishing eighth.
Following the season opener at Monza in Italy, the second DTM race weekend has been scheduled from 23-25 July at DEKRA Lausitzring, located between Berlin and Dresden, with one race each on the Saturday and on the Sunday.
