Aitken scores first win as Preining handed penalty

Emil Frey Ferrari driver Aitken led almost the whole race from pole place, save for the pitstop part, beating the SSR Efficiency Lamborghini of Mirko Bortolotti by 2.3s after one hour of racing on the 4.35km circuit.

Kelvin van der Linde completed third for Abt Audi, making it three completely different producers on the rostrum.

When the primary of the 2 races on the Lausitzring this weekend received underway, Aitken held the highest spot going into the opening left-hander, whereas Winward Mercedes driver Lucas Auer tried a transfer on Bortolotti for second earlier than backing down and settling for third.

Additional down the sphere, Preining was in a three-way battle for the final-points scoring positions when he hit the aspect of Franck Perera into Flip 2, who in flip collided with the Audi of Luca Engstler that was already on the sting of the observe. 

The contact left Engstler’s Audi beached within the gravel, prompting the deployment of the protection automotive, whereas Perera additionally suffered terminal injury that pressured him to pit and retire his Lamborghini from the race.

The stewards held Preining chargeable for the collision and slapped him with three separate long-lap penalties, which he served after the SC interval, sending him tumbling down the order.

Again on the entrance, Aitken perfected the restart to carry the highest spot from Bortolotti, extending his lead progressively to 1 second by the point the pitstop window opened on the 20-minute mark.

Aitken waited till the third lap of the pit window to finish his necessary pitstop, which allowed Bortolotti to undercut him, however the British driver was in a position to repass the Lamborghini on his outlap.

From there on, Aitken wasn’t challenged for the highest spot of the rostrum, the 27-year-old turning into the ninth completely different driver to attain a win in 2023 in as many races

It additionally marked the primary victory for the brand new Ferrari 296 GT3 within the DTM, in addition to the primary for the Emil Frey squad that entered the championship this season.

Though Bortolotti was no match to Aitken, the runner-up end result moved him as much as second within the championship on a day when factors chief Preining completed down in fifteenth place.

Abt driver van der Linde completed half a second behind Bortolotti in third after passing the Mercedes of Auer proper after the latter’s pitstop. 

Fifth place went to van der Linde’s youthful brother and defending champion Sheldon, who was once more the highest finisher for BMW and Schubert Motorsport.

The South African handed the second Abt Audi of Ricardo Feller for fifth simply earlier than their pitstops, with Feller additionally shedding a spot to the HRT Mercedes of Luca Stolz when he ran extensive at Flip 7 on his outlap. He ultimately completed seventh.

Three-time DTM champion Rene Rast (Schubert BMW) bagged some stable factors in eighth after ranging from eleventh, whereas the highest 10 was accomplished by Aitken’s team-mate Thierry Vermeulen and Undertaking 1 BMW’s Marco Wittmann.

After dropping exterior the highest 20 following his triple long-lap penalty, Preining was in a position to salvage a solitary level in fifteenth place, passing the Grasser Lamborghini of Maximilian Paul with simply 10 minutes to go within the race.

DTM Laustizring – race one end result