Thomas Preining became the champion of the DTM this Sunday. He won the second race in Hockenheim, which concluded the season yesterday, but the title had already been secured in qualifying thanks to the pole position.
The Austrian, driving a Porsche from Manthey EMA, capitalized on his grid position to maintain the lead. An incident involving Christian Engelhart (GRT Grasser/Lamborghini) after contact with Marco Wittmann (Project 1/BMW) on the third lap prompted the intervention of the safety car.
After the neutralization, Preining withstood the attacks from Mirko Bortolotti (SSR Performance/Lamborghini) and Sheldon van der Linde (Schubert Motorsport/BMW) to retain the lead. Of the top three, the South African was the first to change tires on lap 14, followed by Bortolotti and Preining on lap 16.
On lap 18, René Rast (Schubert Motorsport/BMW) took the lead with an overcut after the pit stops, but he struggled with cold tires and quickly dropped to fourth. Preining returned to the top and never relinquished it, but in the final stages he still had to withstand the pressure from Bortolotti – whose pace increased again in this phase.
At the finish line, Preining beat Bortolotti by 0.852s, ending the season that gave him the title on a high note. Rast managed to recover to third place, overtaking Maro Engel (Mercedes-AMG Team Mann-Filter) on the final lap. The German was also overtaken by Van der Linde.
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