Hockenheim DTM: Van der Linde wins to draw level with Lawson

Van der Linde held the lead in the opening two corners from a charging Lucas Auer, but a bigger battle was brewing right behind the leading duo.

Having witnessed Lawson bang wheels with Maximilian Gotz as they exited Turn 2, Arjun Maini cleared both Gotz and Daniel Juncadella on the back straight and then set about chasing Lawson and Auer for second. 

But the GetSpeed driver misjudged his braking into the Turn 6 hairpin, slamming into the side of Auer’s Winward Mercedes and bringing out the safety car before the end of the opening lap.

Gotz emerged from the chaos in second position behind race leader van der Linde, with Lawson dropping to third after having to go around the crashed cars of Maini and Lawson.

When the pit window opened at the end of lap 5, Gotz and Lawson pitted at the first opportunity, hoping to undercut van der Linde - who had built a small gap for himself at the restart.

But when the Abt Sportline driver did stop a lap later, he emerged well clear of the chasing duo, staving off any threat of being jumped in the pits.

From there on the South African enjoyed a clear run to the finish, scoring his fourth victory of the season - and first since the second race at the Nurburgring in August.

With Lawson dropping to fourth on the final lap, van der Linde has managed to completely wipe out what had been a 15-point deficit coming into the penultimate round of the season.

Second place in the race went to Lawson's AF Corse teammate Albon, who charged his way up the pack from ninth on the grid after making a relatively late pitstop on lap 12.

Eight laps after bolting on fresh tyres, Albon passed Lawson into Turn 6 and then muscled his way past Juncadella’s Mercedes to secure his fourth podium finish of the season.

2013 champion Mike Rockenfeller completed an even more impressive recovery drive from 17th on the grid to finish third, playing a big role in teammate van der Linde’s title bid in the process.

Stopping for new tyres just 11 laps from the finish, Rockenfeller picked up drivers one by one in the final stages of the race, putting himself on the cusp of a rostrum result going into the final tour.

Lawson covered the inside line into Turn 6 and was able to fend off Rockenfeller into the following right-hander, but the Abt Sportsline driver managed to snatch third place from his AF Corse rival into Turn 8.

Gotz eventually finished fifth behind Lawson having run second for the majority of the race after complaining about brake issues over team radio.

Esteban Muth finished an excellent sixth in the lead T3 Lamborghini ahead of the Mercedes cars of Juncadella (GruppeM), Philip Ellis (Winward) and Vincent Abril (HRT).

The top 10 was rounded out by Rowe Racing’s Timo Glock, the BMW driver bagging the final point following a long tussle with the Mucke Motorsport of debutant Marvin Dienst, who was substituting for the absent Maximilian Buhk.

Making his maiden appearance in the DTM in a fourth Abt-run Audi, Lucas di Grassi finished in 15th place behind another guest driver Hubert Haupt of the HRT Mercedes team.

While Lawson and van der Linde are now level on points in the standings, Marco Wittmann’s title hopes took a big hit after he was forced to retire his Walkenhorst BMW with accidental damage.

The two-time DTM champion had slipped from 13th to 17th after damaging his car in the opening lap incident between Auer and Maini and could never recover thereafter, bringing his car into the pits on lap 24 while running outside the points.

Race results:

Cla	Driver	Car	Gap
1	Kelvin van der Linde	Audi R8 LMS Evo
2	Alex Albon	Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020	5.886
3	Mike Rockenfeller	Audi R8 LMS Evo	15.601
4	Liam Lawson	Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020	17.233
5	Maximilian Götz	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	17.940
6	Esteban Muth	BMW M6 GT3	18.779
7	Daniel Juncadella	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	19.966
8	Philip Ellis	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	21.119
9	Vincent Abril	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	28.817
10	Timo Glock	BMW M6 GT3	36.432
11	Marvin Dienst	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	39.674
12	Sophia Flörsch	Audi R8 LMS Evo	40.662
13	Esmee Hawkey	Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo	44.633
14	Hubert Haupt	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	46.641
15	Lucas di Grassi	Audi R8 LMS Evo	1'02.029
16	Dev Gore	Audi R8 LMS Evo	1'03.246
	Nico Müller	Audi R8 LMS Evo	9 Laps
	Sheldon Van Der Linde	BMW M6 GT3	10 Laps
	Marco Wittmann	BMW M6 GT3	12 Laps
	Lucas Auer	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	31 Laps
	Arjun Maini	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo
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