Apart from a brief period shortly after his pitstop, SSR Performance driver Perera was never threatened at the front of the field as he started his first full season in the DTM with a fine four-second victory.
Two-time DTM Trophy champion Tim Heinemann impressed on his step up to the DTM with a charging drive from seventh to second in his Toksport WRT Porsche, while Emil Frey driver Aitken recovered from a poor opening stint to take the final spot on the rostrum in his first race with the new 296 GT3.
As the first DTM race under new owner ADAC got underway, Perera made a clean start from pole position to lead into the opening set of corners, with SSR team-mate Mirko Bortolotti getting the jump on Aitken to establish a Lamborghini 1-2 at the front of the pack.
Abt Audi driver Ricardo Feller also passed Aitken by the end of the opening lap, Heinemann following suit with a physical move on lap two before being asked to hand back the position.
The order at the front remained the same until the pitstop sequence, with Aitken the first among the leading group to complete his mandatory tyre change and Heinemann the next to follow him on lap 24.
Perera waited until lap 27 for his stop, which reduced his advantage to just over a second over Heinemann. He had jumped Aitken, Feller and Bortolotti in the pits to move up to second.
While the threat from Heinemann looked genuine at that point, Perera managed to get his tyres up to temperature and pulled away once again as the Frenchman's stormed to victory on just his second DTM race start.
The win for Perera, who made a one-off appearance at the Norisring last year as a replacement for Rolf Iniechen at Grasser Racing, also marked an ideal start to SSR Performance’s partnership with Lamborghini following its switch from Porsche over the winter and ends Lamborghini’s wait for its first series win.
Aitken rounded off the podium spots in his and Emil Frey's first DTM start, the Briton finishing another four seconds adrift of Heinemann as three different manufacturers finished on the podium.
Feller took fourth after a long battle with his former team-mate Rene Rast, passing the three-time DTM champion's Schubert BMW with just three laps to go.
Kelvin van der Linde rose from 10th on the grid to finish sixth in the other Abt Audi, ahead of the top Team Bernhard Porsche of Laurin Heinrich.
Bortolotti stopped for fresh tyres just one lap later than Perera but dropped back to finish a disappointing eighth and 18s behind his team-mate.
Porsche drivers occupied the next three positions, with Christian Engelhart in the Toksport WRT leading the two Manthey EMA cars of Dennis Olsen and Thomas Preining.
Both Manthey EMA cars suffered botched pitstops, with Preining particularly losing time with a problem fitting a new left-front tyre on his Porsche 911 GT3 R that had started sixth.
However, they still managed to finish inside the points in 10th and 11th, ahead of the Grasser Lamborghini of Clemens Schmid.
Mercedes endured a torrid start, with Landgraf driver Maro Engel the best AMG representative in 13th ahead of team-mate Jusuf Owega.
Thierry Vermeulen rounded out the points finishers for Emil Frey in 15th.
Reigning champion Sheldon van der Linde suffered a nightmare start to his title defence that saw him initially slip down to 21st place, before a pitstop fumble compounded his misery. Schubert eventually wheeled back his BMW to the garage to retire.
Two-time DTM champion and Project 1 driver Marco Wittmann also failed to finish in what was overall a tough day for BMW.
DTM Oschersleben race results (44 laps)
| Cla | Driver | Car | Time | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Frank Perera | Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 2 | - | |
| 2 | Tim Heinemann | Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) | 3.987 | |
| 3 |  Jack Aitken |
Ferrari 296 GT3 | 4.090 | |
| 4 |  Ricardo Feller |
Audi R8 LMS Evo II | 4.573 | |
| 5 |  René Rast |
BMW M4 GT3 | 2.939 | |
| 6 |  Kelvin van der Linde |
Audi R8 LMS Evo II | 1.256 | |
| 7 | Laurin Heinrich |
Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) | 0.423 | |
| 8 |  Mirko Bortolotti |
Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 2 | 0.473 | |
| 9 | Christian Engelhart |
Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) | 1.012 | |
| 10 |  Dennis Olsen |
Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) | 3.269 | |
| 11 |  Thomas Preining |
Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) | 0.579 | |
| 12 | Clemens Schmid |
Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 2 | 2.482 | |
| 13 | Maro Engel |
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 0.265 | |
| 14 | Jusuf Owega | Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 3.733 | |
| 15 | Thierry Vermeulen | Ferrari 296 GT3 | 7.337 | |
| 16 | Lucas Auer |
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 2.561 | |
| 17 | Luca Engstler |
Audi R8 LMS Evo II | 0.863 | |
| 18 | David Schumacher |
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 3.492 | |
| 19 | Alessio Deledda |
Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 2 | 38.987 | |
 Ayhancan Güven |
Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) | 4 laps | ||
 Arjun Maini |
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 13 laps | ||
| Sheldon Van Der Linde |
BMW M4 GT3 | 1'17.725 | ||
| Marco Wittmann |
BMW M4 GT3 | 3 laps | ||
| Patric Niederhauser |
Audi R8 LMS Evo II | 7 laps | ||
| Mick Wishofer |
Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 2 | 1'37.573 | ||
| Mattia Drudi |
Audi R8 LMS Evo II | 5 laps | ||
| Luca Stolz |
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 7 laps | ||
| View full results | ||||
