DTM Lausitzring: Van der Linde holds off Engel for double win

The Schubert BMW driver aced the start and, despite carrying 25 additional kilos that allowed Maro Engel (Gruppe M Mercedes) to close, he never came under serious threat until the final sequence of corners and won by 0.347 seconds.

Three-time DTM champion Rene Rast took the first podium of his comeback season in third in the leading Abt Audi, as a quick pitstop elevated van der Linde's team-mate Philipp Eng to fourth.

As van der Linde led into the banked Turn 1, Engel, Rast and Mirko Bortolotti (Grasser Lamborghini) briefly went three-wide behind him in their squabble over third.

Engel and Rast remained side-by-side on the long run to the Turn 2 left-hander and, just as Rast conceded the corner, Bortolotti made an aggressive move to Engel's inside that resulted in contact and nerfed the Mercedes sideways.

Engel slithered over the grass and rejoined right in front of Bortolotti, who had to jam on the brakes and lost third to Rast as a result.

The leaders ran in that order until the pitstop cycle began on lap seven, with Ricardo Feller (Abt Audi) peeling in from fifth position.

A quick stop for Eng, who had been seventh prior to the pit sequence, meant he rejoined narrowly ahead of the Swiss.

Philipp Eng, Schubert Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 (Photo by: Andreas Beil)

After Engel pitted on lap eight, van der Linde, Rast and Bortolotti came in together on the following tour.

Eng's pace on new tyres meant he cleared Bortolotti, the Italian also fell behind Nico Muller (Team Rosberg Audi) when the Portimao winner came in on lap 10.

That trio remained in the same position to the flag, despite Muller tapping Eng sideways on the exit of Turn 10 on lap 22 and Muller making a mistake at Turn 4 that allowed Bortolotti to get alongside on lap 12.

On new tyres, van der Linde kept Engel at arm's length, with the Mercedes man only truly getting close enough to challenge on the final lap.

His double win puts him into the lead of the standings ahead of Bortolotti, who was a frustrated sixth.

Nick Cassidy in the Red Bull Ferrari had closed strongly on the trio ahead and was set to finish seventh when he was forced into the pits by a puncture.

It completed a disappointing weekend for the AF Corse-run squad, after a fire in qualifying meant Felipe Fraga was unable to take the start.

Feller, who had lost out to Cassidy and had a grassy moment at Turn 4, took the flag in seventh ahead of pre-event points leader Lucas Auer (Winward Mercedes).

Laurens Vanthoor (SSR Performance Porsche) and Marco Wittmann completed the point scorers, the Belgian repassing his Walkenhorst BMW rival after the double DTM champion's lunge at Turn 2 cost both drivers positions to Auer.

Result - 36 laps:

Cla	Driver	Car	Gap
1	Sheldon Van Der Linde	BMW M4 GT3
2	Maro Engel	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	0.347
3	René Rast	Audi R8 LMS Evo II	1.817
4	Philipp Eng	BMW M4 GT3	6.907
5	Nico Müller	Audi R8 LMS Evo II	7.338
6	Mirko Bortolotti	Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo	7.682
7	Ricardo Feller	Audi R8 LMS Evo II	14.572
8	Lucas Auer	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	14.872
9	Laurens Vanthoor	Porsche 911 GT3 R	15.426
10	Marco Wittmann	BMW M4 GT3	16.236
11	Dennis Olsen	Porsche 911 GT3 R	16.732
12	Luca Stolz	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	21.836
13	Arjun Maini	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	23.874
14	David Schumacher	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	27.503
15	Maximilian Götz	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	27.748
16	Rolf Ineichen	Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo	29.537
17	Dev Gore	Audi R8 LMS Evo II	29.981
18	Esteban Muth	BMW M4 GT3	31.285
19	Esmee Hawkey	Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo	1'14.562
20	Kelvin van der Linde	Audi R8 LMS Evo II	1'18.639
21	Alessio Deledda	Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo	1 Lap
22	Maximilian Buhk	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	2 Laps
23	Nick Cassidy	Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020	4 Laps
	Marius Zug	Audi R8 LMS Evo II	7 Laps
	Clemens Schmid	Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo	13 Laps
	Nicki Thiim	Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo	29 Laps
	Thomas Preining	Porsche 911 GT3 R	33 Laps
	Mikael Grenier	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo
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