Manthey EMA’s Turkish star Ayhancan Güven kept a cool head at the wheel of his Porsche 911 GT3 R in a turbulent fifth race of the season, which took place in unsettled weather conditions at Zandvoort.
The Turk was flawless in both the wet and the dry, and after 34 laps of racing on Saturday, Güven crossed the finish line with a slender 0.3-second lead over Lamborghini driver Nicki Thiim to claim his second victory in the DTM.
“What an unbelievable race! To win after a battle with Nicki Thiim feels special to me. I was a huge fan of him as a kid,” said Güven. Lamborghini racers Nicki Thiim (Abt Sportsline) and Maximilian Paul (Paul Motorsport) followed in second and third place.
Conditions were tough at the start of the race: the rain had stopped, but the race went green with a fully wet track.
Güven immediately climbed from fifth to third place on lap one in his Porsche 911 GT3 R, behind pole-sitter Jordan Pepper and Luca Engstler (both TGI Team Lamborghini by GRT).
As the race progressed, the asphalt started to dry out.
Güven was one of the first to come in for his mandatory pit stops, opting to switch to slicks.
In doing so, he beat a rush to make the change with pit lane seeing much of the field opt to change on the same lap.
Pepper, who had opened a big lead at the front of the race by this point, lost over 13 seconds in the chaos and then dropped back through the field over the remainder of the race.
In contrast, Thiim, benefited from a late tyre change, rejoining the race as the new leader.
Whilst still on cold tyres though he was unable to defend his lead against the charge from Güven.
Shortly before the end of the race, the safety car was scrambled after an incident involving BMW driver René Rast (chubert Motorsport).
Güven defended his lead at the restart and went on to take the chequered flag ahead of the three Lamborghinis of Thiim, Paul and Engstler.
Paul claimed the first DTM podium for his family team, Paul Motorsport. Lucas Auer (Mercedes-AMG Team Landgraf) climbed into fifth place in the Mercedes-AMG, and consequently held onto his lead at the top of the points table.
Morris Schuring was sixth in front of his home crowd in the Porsche run by the Manthey Junior Team. Marco Wittmann (Schubert Motorsport) crossed the finish line just 0.017 seconds later as the best-placed BMW driver, having produced an impressive fightback, gaining 13 positions.
Pole-sitter Pepper had to settle for eighth place, his Abty Sportsline team-mate Mirko Bortolotti was ninth. Maro Engel (Mercedes-AMG Team Winward Racing) dropped back from second to tenth place after a tough race in his Mercedes-AMG GT3.
Ayhancan Güven: “We switched to slicks early on, which was key to the win. Some drivers only came in later during a short shower, and then had issues getting their tyres up to the right temperature quickly.”
Nicki Thiim: “Opting for slicks from the start was a big risk. However, I realised that it was the right tactic after just a few laps. Without the safety car phase, we could have got the win. Despite this, I am incredibly proud to have claimed the first DTM podium in the new Lamborghini era at Abt Sportsline.”
Maximilian Paul: “As a family team, we have worked for this moment for a long time. The podium feels awesome. I am sure we could have done even better. We lost some time during the tyre change, but I did not want to take too much of a risk turning into the pits in these challenging conditions.”
Pic copyright and courtesy DTM
