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James Newbold

Lausitzring DTM: Van der Linde scores first win for new BMW M4

Van der Linde held the net lead through the pitstop phase after pitting one lap later than Auer, and took the flag 3.59 seconds clear of Luca Stolz's HRT Mercedes to become the third different driver from as many different manufacturers to win this season.

It was the first series win for the new BMW M4 GT3, and the first for his Schubert team on only its third DTM start.

South African van der Linde took a wide line approaching the banked Turn 1 at the start and swept ahead of Auer's Winward Mercedes, with a fast-starting Stolz moving into third ahead of teammate Arjun Maini.

Van der Linde began to open up a lead at the front and was a shade over two seconds clear when Auer broke up the status quo by pitting on lap seven as the window opened.

But a slight delay in the pits for Auer meant he emerged behind Stolz, and when van der Linde responded with his own pitstop one lap later, he remained ahead of the Mercedes pair.  

A brief mid-race rain shower threatened to hurt the early stoppers, with Nick Cassidy (Red Bull Ferrari) staying out ahead of two-time DTM champion Marco Wittmann (Walkenhorst BMW), but never progressed to a point where drivers would consider taking wets.

Van der Linde continued to stretch his advantage out front and never came under threat from Stolz behind as he secured a first DTM win since Assen 2020, while Auer completed the podium in third.

Maini held onto fourth place to the finish on a strong day for HRT, while Maro Engel (GruppeM Mercedes) was left to rue being shuffled back from third to sixth at the start as he finished fifth.

Pre-event championship leader Mirko Bortolotti (GRT Lamborghini) also had a bad start, dropping back from ninth to 13th on the opening lap, but recovered to sixth as several drivers dropped out with punctures.

Ricardo Feller (Abt Audi) was running ahead of the Italian when he suffered a right-rear failure on the straight and retired on-track, while Felipe Fraga - who had run fifth early on - also retired due to a problem with the right-rear that had forced an extra stop.

Abt's three-time DTM champion Rene Rast scored the first points of his series return in eighth after being outmuscled by Laurens Vanthoor's SSR Porsche for seventh, as late-stopper Cassidy and defending champion Maxi Gotz (Winward Mercedes) completed the points.

Lausitzring DTM - Race 1 results:

Cla # Driver Car Gap
1 31 South Africa Sheldon Van Der Linde BMW M4 GT3  
2 4 Germany Luca Stolz Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 3.590
3 22 Austria Lucas Auer Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 5.427
4 36 India Arjun Maini Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 7.752
5 88 Germany Maro Engel Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 9.142
6 63 Italy Mirko Bortolotti Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 13.654
7 92 Belgium Laurens Vanthoor Porsche 911 GT3 R 17.577
8 33 Germany René Rast Audi R8 LMS Evo II 19.056
9 37 New Zealand Nick Cassidy Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 19.303
10 1 Germany Maximilian Götz Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 21.425
11 18 Germany Maximilian Buhk Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 22.949
12 10 Belgium Esteban Muth BMW M4 GT3 34.430
13 95 Denmark Nicki Thiim Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 37.064
14 19 Switzerland Rolf Ineichen Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 38.253
15 66 Germany Marius Zug Audi R8 LMS Evo II 41.256
16 12 United States Dev Gore Audi R8 LMS Evo II 49.533
17 85 Austria Clemens Schmid Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 49.820
18 26 United Kingdom Esmee Hawkey Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 1'20.599
19 6 Italy Alessio Deledda Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 1 Lap
  24 Austria Thomas Preining Porsche 911 GT3 R 7 Laps
  51 Switzerland Nico Müller Audi R8 LMS Evo II 10 Laps
  94 Norway Dennis Olsen Porsche 911 GT3 R 11 Laps
  55 Canada Mikael Grenier Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 11 Laps
  11 Germany Marco Wittmann BMW M4 GT3 11 Laps
  27 Germany David Schumacher Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 13 Laps
  74 Brazil Felipe Fraga Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 14 Laps
  7 Switzerland Ricardo Feller Audi R8 LMS Evo II 21 Laps
  3 South Africa Kelvin van der Linde Audi R8 LMS Evo II 22 Laps
  25 Austria Philipp Eng BMW M4 GT3 25 Laps
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