DTM Hockenheim: Auer beats van der Linde in chaotic crash-filled race

The race was red-flagged following a chaotic restart on lap six that saw Thomas Preining and David Schumacher smashing into the barriers on the run to Turn 8 following contact, and Dennis Olsen hitting the wall rear-first just seconds later after a separate incident with Ricardo Feller.

All cars were heavily damaged in the incident, with the engine from Olsen’s Porsche being thrown out of the car on impact and immediately catching fire.

Only 17 out of 27 cars returned on track when the race resumed after a long red-flag, as several others had retired earlier in crashes on the opening lap and again on lap 6 prior to the carnage that ensued at Turn 8.

Polesitter Auer was able to hold the lead with ease at the second restart following DTM’s decision to abandon the much-maligned double-file restart procedure, with Marco Wittmann closely following the Winward Mercedes driver in his Walkenhorst BMW.

Both drivers headed to the pits at the same time on lap 11, with Auer hanging on to position despite a quicker stop by the Walkenhorst crew.

Wittmann tried to put pressure on Auer on the outlap, but the Austrian was able to withstand the pressure and eventually eke out a one-second buffer over the two-time champion.

Two-time champion Wittmann mounted a second attack on lap 26 and even managed to move his nose ahead of Auer into the hairpin, only to run deep and allow the latter back through into the net lead.

Wittmann initially got ahead of Auer at the restart, but was put back behind him when the race resumed in a single-file order after the red flag

Photo by: Alexander Trienitz

Auer was then able to pass the Rosberg Audi of Dev Gore - who had moved up the order with a pitstop immediately as the lap six restart was getting underway - to score his first win since the season opener at Portimao.

However, this wasn’t enough to take the lead of the championship following an inspired recovery drive from Sheldon van der Linde, who rebounded from a 10-place grid penalty to finish right behind him in second.

The Schubert BMW driver jumped from 16th to eighth at the original start, avoiding the mess that ensued between Turns 1 and 2 as well as the errant wheel thrown off his brother Kelvin’s Audi, before charging past his rivals including Rene Rast to move up to podium positions.

When Wittmann got held up by the struggling Audi of Gore on the penultimate lap, van der Linde sent his BMW up the inside of the German to claim a crucial second position in his pursuit of a maiden title.

Abt Audi’s Rast was another driver to make rapid gains on the opening lap, jumping from seventh to third, but was powerless to defend from van der Linde’s BMW as he crossed the finish line in fifth behind Gore.

Mirko Bortolotti was the last of the frontrunners to pit after dropping from third to fifth at the original start, but a slow 13.5s pitstop left him tumbling down the order and with a mountain to climb in the remainder of the race.

Bortolotti did manage to regain several positions in the closing stages of the race to finish seventh behind the second Schubert BMW of Philipp Eng, whose result helped the squad clinch the teams’ title over Abt Sportsline with a race still to run.

Auer's victory closes his deficit to van der Linde to two points in the standings

Photo by: Alexander Trienitz

The top 10 was rounded out by Team Rosberg’s Nico Muller, Luca Stolz (HRT Mercedes) and Maximilian Buhk (Mucke Mercedes).

Ahead of Sunday's finale, van der Linde leads the championship by two points over Auer, with Rast 21 points adrift in third and Bortolotti 28 in arrears in fourth.

Team Bernhard Porsche driver Preining is effectively out of the title battle following his horrific incident with Schumacher’s Winward Mercedes earlier on lap 6.

Full Race 1 results:

Cla	Driver		Car	Time	Gap	Interval
1	Lucas Auer		Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	1:34'18.676
2	Sheldon Van Der Linde		BMW M4 GT3	1:34'19.357	0.681	0.681
3	Marco Wittmann		BMW M4 GT3	1:34'20.583	1.907	1.226
4	Dev Gore		Audi R8 LMS Evo II	1:34'21.775	3.099	1.192
5	René Rast		Audi R8 LMS Evo II	1:34'23.729	5.053	1.954
6	Philipp Eng		BMW M4 GT3	1:34'24.525	5.849	0.796
7	Mirko Bortolotti		Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo	1:34'24.972	6.296	0.447
8	Nico Müller		Audi R8 LMS Evo II	1:34'28.000	9.324	3.028
9	Luca Stolz		Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	1:34'33.026	14.350	5.026
10	Maximilian Buhk		Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	1:34'38.328	19.652	5.302
11	Maro Engel		Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	1:34'38.781	20.105	0.453
12	Kelvin van der Linde		Audi R8 LMS Evo II	1:34'39.935	21.259	1.154
13	Felipe Fraga		Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020	1:34'40.498	21.822	0.563
14	Christian Engelhart		Porsche 911 GT3 R	1:34'41.162	22.486	0.664
15	Maximilian Götz		Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	1:34'49.894	31.218	8.732
16	Leon Köhler		BMW M4 GT3	1:35'00.221	41.545	10.327
	Alessio Deledda		Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo	1:15'53.237	11 Laps	11 Laps
	Nick Cassidy		Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020	13'37.890	24 Laps	13 Laps
	Ricardo Feller		Audi R8 LMS Evo II	13'38.051	24 Laps	0.161
	Thomas Preining		Porsche 911 GT3 R	13'38.099	24 Laps	0.048
	David Schumacher		Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	13'38.384	24 Laps	0.285
	Dennis Olsen		Porsche 911 GT3 R	13'38.420	24 Laps	0.036
	Mikael Grenier		Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	13'38.801	24 Laps	0.381
	Clemens Schmid		Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo	13'39.099	24 Laps	0.298
	Rolf Ineichen		Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo	13'39.391	24 Laps	0.292
	Marius Zug		Audi R8 LMS Evo II	13'39.521	24 Laps	0.130
	Arjun Maini		Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	0.000
View full results