DTM Nurburgring: Van der Linde wins after Bortolotti, Fraga clash

After a delay of several hours caused by looming fog, which had caused qualifying to be cancelled with the race started in order of championship positions, the battle for victory looked set to be decided between Fraga’s Red Bull Ferrari and the polesitting Grasser Lamborghini of Bortolotti.

The Italian appeared to be the quicker of the two approaching the closing stages and went for a move up the inside of the final corner on lap 29 of 38, but Fraga shut the door.

Both cars spun in the resulting contact, with Bortolotti stranded in the middle of the road, but Schubert BMW driver Van der Linde managed to avoid the carnage and secured a third win of the season by 1.928s.

His brother Kelvin van der Linde made use of a late stop to vault up from 19th in the early phases to finish second in his Abt Audi, as his team-mate Ricardo Feller beat defending champion Max Gotz’s Winward Mercedes to complete the podium in third.

At the start, Fraga made superb early progress from sixth on the grid and appeared to get his tyres up to temperature quicker than the cars around him as he led before the end of the lap.

The Brazilian had nosed between van der Linde and Rene Rast (Abt Audi) to take second at Turn 2 on the opening lap and then zapped Bortolotti for the lead into the chicane, the pair continuing to run line astern throughout the opening stint.

Lucas Auer initially ran third in his Winward Mercedes, but slipped backwards behind Sheldon van der Linde, Thomas Prening (who later retired with splitter damage on his Bernhard Porsche) and Gotz before starting the pit sequence on lap nine.

Fraga was first of the leaders to pit on lap 20, with Bortolotti following suit on the next tour. The Lamborghini briefly emerged ahead, but with his tyres already up to temperature Fraga snuck past around the outside of Turn 3.

Mirko Bortolotti, Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan EVO GT3, Felipe Fraga, AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo (Photo by: DTM)

Sheldon van der Linde had pitted on lap 17 and had to pass Gotz – also struggling with tyre warm-up fresh out of the pits - before setting off after the leading pair.

Rast had also leapfrogged Gotz by pitting on the same lap as Bortolotti, but was coming under huge pressure from the Mercedes and Laurens Vanthoor’s SSR Porsche when the Belgian misjudged his braking for Turn 3 and tapped Rast into a spin, which also forced Gotz wide and allowed Feller to sneak ahead.

Auer finished fifth, while Philipp Eng (Schubert BMW) held off a charging Nick Cassidy (Red Bull Ferrari) for sixth after a spirited battle that included three-wide contact with Rast at one point.

The three-time champion eventually finished ninth, behind Marco Wittmann, after an eventful race. He had earlier made contact with Nico Muller that forced the Rosberg Audi to retire with a puncture and tapped Dennis Olsen’s SSR Porsche sideways to bend the Norwegian’s steering after they had run three-wide with Gotz at the hairpin.

DTM Nurburgring Race 1 Results - 38 laps

Cla	Driver	Car	Time	Gap
1	Sheldon Van Der Linde	BMW M4 GT3	57'04.374
2	Kelvin van der Linde	Audi R8 LMS Evo II	57'06.302	1.928
3	Ricardo Feller	Audi R8 LMS Evo II	57'12.806	8.432
4	Maximilian Götz	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	57'13.258	8.884
5	Lucas Auer	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	57'15.525	11.151
6	Philipp Eng	BMW M4 GT3	57'22.847	18.473
7	Nick Cassidy	Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020	57'23.494	19.120
8	Marco Wittmann	BMW M4 GT3	57'23.927	19.553
9	René Rast	Audi R8 LMS Evo II	57'25.342	20.968
10	Mikael Grenier	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	57'26.287	21.913
11	Maximilian Buhk	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	57'26.696	22.322
12	Clemens Schmid	Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo	57'27.171	22.797
13	Esteban Muth	BMW M4 GT3	57'28.571	24.197
14	Marius Zug	Audi R8 LMS Evo II	57'30.196	25.822
15	Arjun Maini	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	57'30.791	26.417
16	Maro Engel	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	57'32.234	27.860
17	Luca Stolz	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	57'32.726	28.352
18	Rolf Ineichen	Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo	57'33.764	29.390
19	Theo Oeverhaus	BMW M4 GT3	57'51.753	47.379
20	Alessio Deledda	Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo	57'52.607	48.233
	Felipe Fraga	Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020	50'23.162	5 Laps
	Mirko Bortolotti	Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo	42'26.630	10 Laps
	Dev Gore	Audi R8 LMS Evo II	38'29.126	13 Laps
	Laurens Vanthoor	Porsche 911 GT3 R	36'02.177	15 Laps
	Thomas Preining	Porsche 911 GT3 R	24'20.105	22 Laps
	Nico Müller	Audi R8 LMS Evo II	13'50.280	30 Laps
	David Schumacher	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	11'10.937	31 Laps
	Dennis Olsen	Porsche 911 GT3 R	5'10.003	35 Laps
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