Heavy rain prompted two purple flag intervals and led to a begin/cease race, however van der Linde saved his calm and transformed pole place right into a dominant win over the Winward Mercedes of Maro Engel.
Defending champion Thomas Preining ended up third within the Manthey EMA Porsche, making it three totally different producers on the rostrum.
The race bought underway at 5pm native time with the solar shining brightly on the monitor, as Ricardo Feller bought the soar on front-row starter Preining to ascertain an Abt 1-2 behind team-mate van der Linde.
Though the primary raindrops had been noticed as early as lap two, it wasn’t till the fourth tour that it began pouring down correctly, utterly altering the complexion of the race.
The primary batch of vehicles headed to the pitlane on the finish of lap 5, with Arjun Maini within the HRT Mercedes the main driver to make the swap to moist tyres. Roughly half the sphere determined to remain out at this level, partly due to the anticipated time loss from double-stacking within the pits.
Because the rain continued to get heavier, the rest of the sphere entered the pits over the following two laps, with van der Linde managing to remain forward of Mercedes duo Engel and Maini, each of whom had pitted on the first alternative.
SSR Performance’s Nicki Thiim and Porsche ace Preining ran fourth and fifth at this stage, with Thiim later overtaking Maini for third.
With rain displaying no indicators of abating and drivers complaining about standing water, the security automobile was deployed earlier than the purple flag was waved after simply 14 minutes of working.
Maro Engel, Mercedes-AMG Crew WINWARD Mercedes-AMG GT3
Photograph by: Alexander Trienitz
A 15-minute delay adopted earlier than the race resumed behind the security automobile, though it didn’t take lengthy for the race management to carry proceedings to a halt once more.
It wasn’t till 6pm native time that the race resumed in earnest after one other three laps behind the security automobile, with van der Linde keeping off Engel to carry the lead.
The South African continued to increase his benefit with each passing lap, constructing a buffer of 4 seconds by lap 22 earlier than returning to the pits to finish his necessary cease.
Because the monitor started to dry out, van der Linde was unchallenged on the entrance, taking the chequered with a 2.5s result in have a good time his first DTM win since final 12 months’s Purple Bull Ring spherical.
Engel completed one other 4 seconds away from Preining, who benefitted from a botched pitstop for Thiim that dropped the Dane to eighth on the end.
Engel’s team-mate Lucas Auer completed a stable fourth, having made up a number of locations due to some speedy Winward pitwork, whereas Feller took fifth regardless of shedding a piece of time within the preliminary spherical of pitstops.
Sheldon van der Linde dragged his Schubert BMW from twelfth on the grid to complete sixth, overcoming a long-lap penalty for an unsafe launch that demoted him to thirteenth.
Maini ended up seventh on the end, regardless of being the primary of the frontrunners to pit when the rain first hit the monitor, as Thiim likewise took a disappointing eighth-place end after working strongly early on.
Nicki Thiim, SSR Efficiency Lamborghini Huracán EVO GT3
Photograph by: Alexander Trienitz
The highest 10 was accomplished by GRT Lamborghini’s Christian Engelhart and Luca Stolz, each recovering from penalties associated to pitstop infringements.
Manufacturing unit Lamborghini driver Mirko Bortolotti gambled on slick tyres in an impressed name because the monitor started to quickly dry out within the closing phases of the race, with the additional grip from the non-grooved rubber permitting him to rise from final with lower than 20 minutes remaining to eleventh on the end.
Maximilian Paul (Paul Lamborghini), Marco Wittmann (Schubert BMW), Luca Engstler (GRT Lamborghini) and Ayhancan Guven (Manthey EMA Porsche) accomplished the points-scorers, the last-named crossing the ending line with a left-rear puncture on his 911 GT3 R.
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