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DTM Zandvoort: Wittmann takes shock win in red-flagged second race

The Schubert BMW driver started 14th, but a masterful pitstop strategy enabled him to take the lead and win the second race of DTM’s Zandvoort weekend.

Mirko Bortolotti and Kelvin van der Linde joined him on the podium with the latter extending his championship lead.

As the lights went out for the sixth round of the campaign, pole winner Maximilian Paul led into Turn 1 but failed to fend off Bortolotti who claimed the lead around the outside.

But moments later Clemens Schmid hit the barrier approaching Turn 5, while a separate incident saw Lucas Auer stop with smoke coming from the rear of his Mercedes, causing a 10-minute red flag.

Racing resumed with 55 minutes left where Bortolotti kept his lead, before a safety car period was called 12 minutes later when Ayhancan Guven spun at the exit of Turn 3.

The safety car lasted for six minutes with drivers keeping position at the restart until the pitstop window arrived with 36 minutes left in the race.

Van der Linde was first of the frontrunners to pit from fourth, with Thierry Vermeulen in third switching tyres the following lap and Bortolotti driving another tour before boxing.

Van der Linde’s undercut worked though, as he overtook Vermeulen with a daring move around the outside of Turn 7 on Bortolotti’s out-lap while Paul finally pitted with 27 minutes remaining.

Mirko Bortolotti, SSR Performance Lamborghini Huracán EVO GT3 (Photo by: Alexander Trienitz)

The overcut initially worked as he left the pits ahead, but on his out-lap Paul was overtaken by Bortolotti at Turn 7 before dropping behind Van der Linde and Vermeulen at the subsequent corners.

But Wittmann was able to make the overcut work, as he pitted while those battles were happening, leaving the pitlane two seconds ahead of Bortolotti.

The Lamborghini driver quickly made strides though and was attacking Wittmann and the pair collided at Turn 12.

This caused damage to Wittmann’s rear left bodywork, but he was able to continue and actually gain time on Bortolotti to claim victory by 7.2 seconds.

Van der Linde thwarted a late attack from Vermeulen to claim his third podium of the season, while Luca Stolz rounded up the top five.

It means Van der Linde leads second-placed Bortolotti by eight points the championship with Ricardo Feller a further eight points behind in third.

DTM Zandvoort - Race 2 results

   
1
 - 
4
   
   
1
 - 
2
   
Cla Driver # Car Laps Time Interval Pits Points
1 Germany M. Wittmann Schubert Motorsport 11 BMW M4 GT3 38

1:15'41.704

    25
2 Italy M. Bortolotti SSR Performance 92 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 2 38

+7.239

1:15'48.943

7.239   20
3 South Africa K. van der Linde Abt Sportsline 3 Audi R8 LMS Evo II 38

+7.373

1:15'49.077

0.134   16
4
T. Vermeulen Emil Frey Racing
69 Ferrari 296 GT3 38

+7.592

1:15'49.296

0.219   13
5 Germany L. Stolz Mercedes-AMG Team HRT 4 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 38

+8.001

1:15'49.705

0.409   11
6 India A. Maini Mercedes-AMG Team HRT 36 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 38

+8.292

1:15'49.996

0.291   10
7 Germany R. Rast Schubert Motorsport 33 BMW M4 GT3 38

+8.601

1:15'50.305

0.309   9
8 South Africa S. Van Der Linde Schubert Motorsport 31 BMW M4 GT3 38

+8.753

1:15'50.457

0.152   8
9 Germany P. Maximilian Paul Motorsport 71 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 2 38

+9.347

1:15'51.051

0.594   7
10 Austria T. Preining Manthey EMA 91 Porsche 911 GT3 R 38

+9.977

1:15'51.681

0.630   6
11 Switzerland R. Feller Abt Sportsline 7 Audi R8 LMS Evo II 38

+10.547

1:15'52.251

0.570   5
12 Germany L. Engstler GRT Grasser Racing Team 19 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 2 38

+11.021

1:15'52.725

0.474   4
13 Germany M. Engel Mercedes-AMG Team Winward 130 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 38

+11.264

1:15'52.968

0.243   3
14 Denmark N. Thiim SSR Performance 94 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 2 38

+11.827

1:15'53.531

0.563   2
15
B. Dörr Dörr Motorsport
25 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo 38

+11.916

1:15'53.620

0.089   1
16 United Kingdom J. Aitken Emil Frey Racing 14 Ferrari 296 GT3 38

+18.165

1:15'59.869

6.249    
dnf Germany C. Engelhart GRT Grasser Racing Team 63 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 2 15

+23 Laps

39'53.222

23 Laps    
dnf Turkey A. Güven Manthey EMA 90 Porsche 911 GT3 R 10

+28 Laps

28'56.482

5 Laps    
dnf Austria L. Auer Mercedes-AMG Team Mann-Filter 22 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 0

 

     
dnf Austria C. Schmid Dörr Motorsport 85 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo 0

 

     
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