Jack Aitken scored a dominant victory in the first DTM race of the weekend at Zandvoort.
The Briton produced a commanding display to win race five of the season, climbing into third place in the championship in the process.
“Three race weekends in and I already have two wins to my name, that is awesome,” said Aitken post race.
“I managed to open a bit of a gap immediately after the start. After that, I could control the race from the front. I could often see René Rast in my mirror in the closing stages, but I did not let that distract me.”
René Rast from Schubert Motorsport came home second, three seconds behind Aitken, giving BMW its first podium of the season. Arjun Maini from Mercedes-AMG HRT finished third – his second podium in DTM.
Aitken took the holeshot into Turn 1, ahead of Clemens Schmid in the Dorr Motorsport McLaren 720S from the front row. They were followed by Maini, Abt Sportsline Audi’s Ricardo Feller, and Lucas Auer from Mann-Filter Mercedes AMG. The early mover of the race was Rene Rast, starting seventh, who battled through to fourth place.
Aitken lead by around four seconds into the pit stops, and maintained his lead, while a quick stop from Schubert Motorsport allowed Rast to gain over five seconds on Schmid to take effective second place. Maini took his stop later, and almost held on to second ahead of Rast, but was unable to defend the position on cold tyres.
That would be how it stayed to the end: Aitken from Rast, Maini, Schmid then Auer. Sheldon van der Linde finished sixth in the Schubert Motorsport BMW, with team-mate Marco Wittmann behind him after a spirited fightback, gaining 10 positions.
Ricardo Feller finished 8th, while Mirko Bortolotti brough the SSR Performance Lamborghini to ninth. Completing the top 10 was Luca Stolz in the second of the HRT Mercedes AMG’s.
Championship leader Kelvin van der Linde finished in 13th, with the gap between he and his Abt Sportsline team mate Ricardo Feller now only five points, and Aitken now sits only two points further adrift.
Image courtesy of ADAC
