Ben Dörr has claimed both his, and McLaren’s, first DTM victory, after triumphing in a chaotic first race at the Dekra Lausitzring. The 21-year-old had both the correct strategy, and the necessary fortune, aboard his Dörr Motorsport GT3 Evo to make it five different winners in as many races to start the 2026 season.
Shortly before the start, there was a heavy downpour at the Lausitzring, which saw most teams opt to fit the Pirelli wet-weather tyre.
A number of drivers, including the pole-sitting Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin of Nicki Thiim, Dörr, Abt’s Marco Mapelli, Manthey’s Ricardo Feller and Schubert Motorsport’s Marco Wittmann took a chance on slicks. This meant they were initially unable to match the pace of the rest of the field, with Thiim, for instance, falling from first to 13th on the opening lap.
However, this changed as the race progressed and the asphalt became increasingly dry. Thiim retook the lead shortly before the pit stop window, while Dörr found himself in sixth place at this point.
Incidents then came thick and fast from this point onwards. When Dörr’s co-driver Timo Glock rolled to a stop with a technical issue on his McLaren, Thiim pulled into the pits for his tyre change. One lap later, the trio of Mapelli, Dörr and Feller came in, just seconds before a Full Course Yellow applied the brakes to the entire field. Pit stops during the yellow phase allowed the three drivers to open a lead of more than 20 seconds over Thiim. The order then remained unchanged until the finish.
Mapelli initially claimed the victory on the road, the first for the new Lamborghini Temerario GT3, but both the Italian and Feller were handed a 15-second time penalty post-race for exceeding the 80 km/h limit during the yellow phase. Dörr, therefore, inherited the win having started from 10th on the grid, with Mapelli falling to second, whilst Feller had enough of an advantage to remain in third.
“This win is very special for me! I would obviously rather have celebrated this success on the podium, but it is still an incredible moment for me,” Dörr said. “Now in our third year in the DTM, our goal was to compete at the very front of the field. We have done that, and want to continue to do so.”
Thiim crossed the finish line at the Lausitzring in fourth place. Wittmann, who also started on slicks, produced an impressive fightback and climbed from 18th to fifth place. Mercedes-AMG Team Landgraf’s Lucas Auer returned to the top of the drivers’ championship table after finishing sixth. Mercedes-AMG Team Mann-Filter’s Jules Gounon was seventh, ahead of Matteo Cairoli’s Emil Frey Racing Ferrari, HRT Ford Racing driver Arjun Maini and Kelvin van der Linde’s Schubert Motorsport BMW.
Image courtesy of Gruppe C Photography
