The fifth race of this DTM season brought Lucas Auer the best result so far on Saturday. The 28-year-old Tyrolean, who started the race from seventh place, finished fourth in his Mercedes in the first race at the Norisring. The South African Sheldon van der Linde took the day’s victory. The BMW driver prevailed in front of his German brand colleague Rene Rast and the Norwegian Dennis Olsen (Porsche).
For Thomas Preining, meanwhile, the race did not go according to plan at all. The 24-year-old from Upper Austria finished second in qualifying, but lost several places on the first lap and was only eighth at times. The Porsche driver worked his way back up a little before a botched pit stop caused him to fall far behind. In the end, Preining finished twelfth and thus scored four points.
In the drivers’ standings, Preining fell back to second place behind van der Linde. Both drivers hold at 61 points. Third is the Swiss Ricardo Feller (Audi) with 59 points. Auer improved to twelfth place with 29 points. The second race is scheduled for Sunday (1.30 p.m.) at the Norisring.
DTM 2023
Driver standings: 1st Sheldon van der Linde RSA BMW 61 2nd
Thomas Preining
AUT Porsche 61 3. Ricardo Feller SUI Audi 59 4. Franck Perera FROM Lamborghini 56 5. Maro Engel DR Mercedes 54 6. Mirko Bortolotti ITA Lamborghini 47 7. Tim Heinemann DR Porsche 42 8. Dennis Olsen NOR Porsche 42 9. Christian Engelhart DR Porsche 36 10. Frame Wittmann GER BMW
Lucas Auer
AUT Mercedes 29 18.
Clemens Schmid
Auto Lamborghini 16 27.
Mick Wishofer
Auto Lamborghini 1
Standing after five out of 16 races