Thomas Preining has clinched victory in Saturday's DTM race at Oschersleben, taking his second win of the season, in a dominant fashion from pole position
The 2023 DTM champion took victory by 1.601s ahead of Abt Lamborghini's Luca Engstler, with Maro Engel in third for Winward Mercedes.
Preining controlled the race from pole position, while behind him Engel made a decisive move past Engstler into Turn 1. In the opening laps, Preining initially pulled away from his pursuers, but Engel then picked up his pace and closed the gap to Preining.
The battle for the win was decided during the mandatory pitstop, which both Preining and Engel completed after lap 21. While Manthey serviced Preining's car quickly, Engel suffered a jammed left-front wheel and due to the slow pitstop, he lost second place to Engstler.
Since Norisring dominator Nicki Thiim could not get beyond 12th place, also due to the unfavourable Balance of Performance of his Aston Martin and the success ballast after his wins in Nuremberg, Engel still took over the championship lead with third place.
Ben Dorr's race ended on the opening lap when the Dorr McLaren driver came together with Jules Gounon at Turn 3. Dorr was carried wide at the exit of the left-hander and touched Gounon's car, forcing him onto the grass. The resulting puncture ripped parts off the car, and Dorr subsequently retired.
The contact also had consequences for Gounon. The Winward Mercedes driver ran off track slightly several times during the following laps. After lap 27, he parked his car in the garage.
Marco Wittmann was also forced to retire his Schubert BMW prematurely due to a puncture.
In the drivers' championship, Engel now leads with a six-point advantage over Lucas Auer - who took fourth in the Oschersleben opener - and in turn is just one point ahead of Thiim.
DTM Oschersleben - Race 1 results
RACE1
| Cla | Driver | # | Car | Laps | Time | Interval | Pits | Points | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  T. Preining Manthey Racing |
91 | Porsche 911 GT3 R (992.2) | 0 | 25 | ||||||
| 2 |  L. Engstler Red Bull Team Abt |
130 | Lamborghini Temerario GT3 | 0 | 20 | ||||||
| 3 | M. Engel Mercedes-AMG Team Ravenol |
80 | Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 0 | 16 | ||||||
| 4 | L. Auer Mercedes-AMG Team Landgraf |
22 | Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 0 | 13 | ||||||
| 5 |  M. Bortolotti TGI Team Lamborghini by GRT |
19 | Lamborghini Temerario GT3 | 0 | 11 | ||||||
| 6 |  A. Maini HRT Ford Performance |
36 | Ford Mustang GT3 Evo | 0 | 10 | ||||||
| 7 |  K. van der Linde Schubert Motorsport |
3 | BMW M4 GT3 Evo | 0 | 9 | ||||||
| 8 | T. Glock Dörr Motorsport |
16 | McLaren 720S GT3 Evo | 0 | 8 | ||||||
| 9 | T. Vermeulen Emil Frey Racing | 69 | Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo | 0 | 7 | ||||||
| 10 |  R. Feller Manthey Racing |
90 | Porsche 911 GT3 R (992.2) | 0 | 6 | ||||||
| 11 | M. Cairoli Emil Frey Racing |
14 | Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo | 0 | 5 | ||||||
| 12 |  N. Thiim Comtoyou Racing |
7 | Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo | 0 | 4 | ||||||
| 13 | T. Kalender Mercedes-AMG Team Landgraf | 84 | Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 0 | 3 | ||||||
| dnf | B. Buus Land-Motorsport | 29 | Porsche 911 GT3 R (992.2) | 0 | |||||||
| dnf |  J. Gounon Mercedes-AMG Team Mann-Filter |
48 | Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 0 | |||||||
| dnf | M. Mapelli Red Bull Team Abt |
10 | Lamborghini Temerario GT3 | 0 | |||||||
| dnf | F. Wiebelhaus HRT Ford Performance | 64 | Ford Mustang GT3 Evo | 0 | |||||||
| dnf | N. Baert Comtoyou Racing | 8 | Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Evo | 0 | |||||||
| dnf | M. Wittmann Schubert Motorsport |
11 | BMW M4 GT3 Evo | 0 | |||||||
| dnf | B. Dörr Dörr Motorsport | 25 | McLaren 720S GT3 Evo | 0 | |||||||
| View full results | |||||||||||
