DTM Nurburgring: Bortolotti triumphs in rain-affected opener

SSR Performance’s Bortolotti was unchallenged in the hour-long opening contest at the former German Grand Prix venue, resisting two safety cars periods and a brief rain shower to take the chequered flag by 1.1s over Winward Mercedes’ Lucas Auer. Championship leader Thomas Preining completed the podium in third.

As the race got underway at a dry Nurburgring circuit, with dark clouds hanging over, Bortolotti pulled off cleanly from pole, as Preining came under pressure from Audi duo Ricardo Feller and Kelvin van der Linde.

Van der Linde positioned his car on the outside into Turn 1 in a bid to pass Preining, but he was a passenger when Bortolotti’s team-mate Franck Perera misjudged his braking into the right-hander and slammed into the back of the Audi, sending him spinning down to last place.

The collision allowed Peining to hold second position behind Bortolotti, while Auer moved up to fourth with a brilliant launch from eighth on the grid.

At the front, Bortolotti started extending his advantage in the Lamborghini Huracan, pulling out a 4s lead by the time the pit window opened after 20 minutes of racing.

However, drivers were hesitant to head to the pits just yet, as there remained a chance of heavy rain hitting the track.

Spots of rain were clearly visible when Jack Aitken completed his mandatory pitstop, with the Emil Frey driver struggling on cold tyres in his Ferrari as parts of the track started to get damp.

The conditions soon caught out Toksport WRT’s Christian Engelhart, who lost control of his Porsche under braking for Turn 1, spinning rear-first into the Ayhancan Guven, who was circulating on the track right in front of him.

Crash, Christian Engelhart, Toksport WRT Porsche 911 GT3-R, Ayhancan Güven, KÜS Team Bernhard Porsche 911 GT3-R (Photo by: Gruppe C GmbH)

Both cars were seriously damaged in the collision as they came to a rest in the gravel run-off, necessitating a safety car intervention.

Almost the entire field took advantage of the caution period to get their pitstops out of the way, although all of them preferred to put on a new set of slicks.

During this caution period, rain began to intensify at some parts of the track, prompting some drivers - including three-time champion Rene Rast - to pit again and gamble on wet tyres.

But the rain stopped by the time the caution period ended and when the safety car had to be brought out a second time to recover Alessio Deledda’s stranded Lamborghini at Turn 1, all those who had switched to wets had to head back to the pitlane to revert to slick tyres.

The second safety car period ended with just 13 minutes left on the clock, with Bortolotti nailing the restart to lead into Turn 1 as Preining came under pressure from Auer, who had already cleared Feller using the straightline speed of his Mercedes.

Preining and Auer went side-by-side into the opening sequence of corners, with the latter finally completing the move into Turn 4 to seal second.

Auer then began to close down on Bortolotti, who had extended his advantage to over two seconds. At one point, Auer had brought the deficit to under a second, but the Lamborghini driver was able to respond with a fastest lap of his own and maintain the status quo.

Podium: Race winner: Mirko Bortolotti, SSR Performance (Photo by: Alexander Trienitz)

The result made Bortolotti the seventh driver to win a race this season in as many races, as well as the second from the SSR team following Perera's triumph in the season opener.

The 20kg of ballast Preining was carrying left him vulnerable to Feller in the closing laps, but the Manthey EMA driver was able to stave off the challenge to hold on to the final spot on the podium.

Dennis Olsen backed up his team-mate Preining’s performance to finish fifth, as BMW duo Marco Wittmann (Project 1) and Sheldon van der Linde (Schubert) finished sixth and seventh respectively, the latter climbing from 16th on the grid after a tough qualifying.

Kelvin van der Linde recovered from his Turn 1 incident with Perera last to finish eighth, just ahead of the Orange 1 Audi of Patric Niederhauser and Emil Frey Ferrari of Thierry Vermeulen.

Rast’s failed wet-tyre gamble left him 20th and out of the points, while Aitken finished two spots behind in 22nd after also having to make an additional stop to revert to slicks.

DTM Nurburgring - Race 1 results:

Main Information Additional Data Additional Data Driver Info

       

Driver Info			Main Information Additional Data
Cla	Driver	#		Car	Laps	Time	Interval	Pits	Points
1	M. Bortolotti Mirko Bortolotti SSR Performance	92		Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 2	39	-			25
2	L. Auer Lucas Auer Mercedes-AMG Team Winward	22		Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	39	+1.199	1.199		20
3	T. Preining Thomas Preining Manthey EMA	91		Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	39	+1.373	0.174		16
4	R. Feller Ricardo Feller Abt Sportsline	7		Audi R8 LMS Evo II	39	+0.545			13
5	D. Olsen Dennis Olsen Manthey EMA	90		Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	39	+1.210	0.665		11
6	M. Wittmann Marco Wittmann Project 1 Motorsport	11		BMW M4 GT3	39	+2.878	1.668		10
7	S. Van Der Linde Sheldon Van Der Linde Schubert Motorsport	1		BMW M4 GT3	39	+2.958	0.080		9
8	K. van der Linde Kelvin van der Linde Abt Sportsline	3		Audi R8 LMS Evo II	39	+3.134	0.176		8
9	P. Niederhauser Patric Niederhauser Tresor Orange1	83		Audi R8 LMS Evo II	39	+1.352			7
10	T. Vermeulen Thierry Vermeulen Emil Frey Racing	69		Ferrari 296 GT3	39	+0.746			6
11	M. Drudi Mattia Drudi Tresor Orange1	40		Audi R8 LMS Evo II	39	+0.380			5
12	M. Engel Maro Engel Mercedes-AMG Team Mann-Filter	48		Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	39	+0.598	0.218		4
13	P. Maximilian Paul Maximilian GRT Grasser Racing Team	19		Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 2	39	+0.652	0.054		3
14	T. Heinemann Tim Heinemann Toksport WRT	9		Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	39	+0.506			2
15	L. Stolz Luca Stolz Mercedes-AMG Team HRT	4		Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	39	+0.354			1
16	A. Maini Arjun Maini Mercedes-AMG Team HRT	36		Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	39	+1.318	0.964
17	J. Owega Jusuf Owega Mercedes-AMG Team Mann-Filter	84		Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	39	+0.123
18	C. Schmid Clemens Schmid GRT Grasser Racing Team	63		Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 2	39	+0.806	0.683
19	L. Heinrich Laurin Heinrich KÜS Team Bernhard	75		Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	39	+0.372
20	R. Rast René Rast Schubert Motorsport	33		BMW M4 GT3	39	+4.422	4.050
21	S. Holzem Sandro Holzem Project 1 Motorsport	56		BMW M4 GT3	39	+0.627
22	J. Aitken Jack Aitken Emil Frey Racing	14		Ferrari 296 GT3	38	1 lap
23	F. Perera Frank Perera SSR Performance	94		Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 2	38	+1 Lap	31.516
24	A. Deledda Alessio Deledda SSR Performance	6		Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 2	21	17 laps
25	D. Schumacher David Schumacher Mercedes-AMG Team Winward	27		Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	20	1 lap
26	A. Güven Ayhancan Güven KÜS Team Bernhard	24		Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	18	2 laps
27	C. Engelhart Christian Engelhart Toksport WRT	99		Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	18	+21 Laps	1.577
28	L. Engstler Luca Engstler Liqui Moly Team Engstler	8		Audi R8 LMS Evo II	9	9 laps
View full results