Race report
DTM Zolder
Zolder DTM: Wittmann converts pole into first win since 2019
BMW driver Marco Wittmann claimed his first DTM win in two years in the second race at Zolder, as Liam Lawson cut the deficit to points leader Kelvin van der Linde with his fourth podium finish of the season.
Rachit Thukral
Edited: Aug 8, 2021, 4:15 PM
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Having claimed pole position, two-time champion Wittmann led from start to finish to become the fifth different driver to win a race in the first six races of the year.
In similar fashion to Saturday’s opening encounter, the safety car was deployed after the opening lap to recover the stranded Mercedes of Vincent Abril, who was pitched into the gravel trap at Turn 1 by fellow AMG GT3 driver Philip Ellis.
At the restart, Wittmann covered off Auer going into the first corner, before proceeding to build a small but significant gap over his Winward Mercedes rival.
The only real threat the Walkenhorst Motorsport driver faced during the race was after the pitstop phase, having elected to take his mandatory stop two laps after Auer.
But Wittmann managed to return to the track just ahead of Auer and then fended off the Austrian on his outlap, quickly pulling away by over a second.
Auer was later handed a five-second penalty for a pitstop infringement, sealing Wittmann a first win in the DTM since the first race at Brands Hatch in 2019.
Auer’s penalty promoted the sole remaining HRT Mercedes of Maximilian Gotz into second, the 35-year-old having jumped a number of drivers in the pits with an early stop on lap 8.
Lawson ran third early on behind Wittmann and Auer following a rapid start from sixth on the grid but slipped behind Gotz in the pits, before a penalty for Auer promoted him again to the final spot on the podium.
The result helped the Red Bull Formula 1 junior to carve into the championship advantage of van der Linde, who could finish no higher than eighth with 25kg of success ballast on his car.
Last year’s series runner-up Nico Muller bounced back from a trio of difficult races to finish fourth ahead of the penalised Auer, aided by a late pitstop that left him with fresher tyres towards the end.
Alex Albon recovered from a difficult qualifying in the second of the two AF Corse Ferraris, finishing sixth and consolidating fifth spot in the championship.
Rowe Racing BMW driver Sheldon van der Linde was one of the last drivers in the field to complete his mandatory pitstop, jumping from 16th on the grid to seventh at the finish.
His elder brother Kelvin was classified four seconds adrift in eighth, having successfully held off the charging T3 Motorsport Lamborghini of Esteban Muth despite carrying additional weight on his Abt Sportsline Audi.
Kelvin van der Linde’s teammate Mike Rockenfeller rounded out the point scorers in 10th behind Muth.
Christian Klien’s maiden weekend in the DTM ended with a 14th-place finish, a slow stop for the JP Motorsport McLaren driver dropping him outside the top 10.
Race results*:*
Cla # Driver Car Gap 1 11 Marco Wittmann
BMW M6 GT3 2 4 Maximilian Götz
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 1.711 3 30 Liam Lawson
Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 3.557 4 51 Nico Müller
Audi R8 LMS Evo 4.286 5 22 Lucas Auer
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 10.666 6 23 Alex Albon
Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 10.851 7 31 Sheldon Van Der Linde
BMW M6 GT3 19.894 8 3 Kelvin van der Linde
Audi R8 LMS Evo 23.775 9 10 Esteban Muth
Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 24.249 10 9 Mike Rockenfeller
Audi R8 LMS Evo 25.111 11 18 Maximilian Buhk
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 27.887 12 8 Daniel Juncadella
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 28.557 13 26 Esmee Hawkey
Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 30.661 14 15 Christian Klien
McLaren 720S GT3 32.882 15 12 Dev Gore
Audi R8 LMS Evo 41.145 16 57 Philip Ellis
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 57.895 17 16 Timo Glock
BMW M6 GT3 1'04.428 99 Sophia Flörsch
Audi R8 LMS Evo 14 Laps 5 Vincent Abril
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo View full results
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