DTM Hockenheim: Auer wins after title drama and Engstler crash

Lucas Auer has won the first DTM race at Hockenheim after Thomas Preining missed out on wrapping up the title early, while rival Maro Engel suffered a bitter drama and lost victory at the pitstop.

Coupled with Marco Wittmann taking third for Schubert BMW, it means the title fight goes down to the final race, as the two-time champion moved past Engel into second place in the overall standings to be Preining's closest pursuer.

The title will therefore only be decided on Sunday between Preining, Engel and Wittmann. "You have to stay calm and it is open until the last lap," says the BMW driver. "And that is what it looks like now as well. We saw it last year, until the last lap." Despite his victory on Saturday, Auer is out of the title fight.

For DTM championship leader Preining, the drama began shortly after the start: turning onto the Parabolika, the 2023 champion ran onto the grass and dropped as low as 13th overall on the way to the hairpin.

For title rival Engel, by contrast, the opening went almost perfectly and as hoped: the Winward-Mercedes driver fought his way through the melee of the opening corners from seventh on the grid up to third place. Wittmann also made use of the turbulent early phase to work his way into the top 10.

On the second lap, Auer launched an attack on leader Luca Engstler at the hairpin. However, the Abt-Lamborghini driver remained alongside the Landgraf-Mercedes on corner exit, before consequential contact in the fast right-hander in front of the Mercedes grandstand. Engstler then lost control of his Abt-Lamborghini and hit the concrete wall backwards.

After a brief safety car period, race control decided to suspend the race for a few minutes in order to inspect the track barrier. Engstler was meanwhile taken by ambulance to the medical centre for checks.

Auer hands the lead to fellow AMG driver Engel

At Mercedes-AMG, however, the roles were clearly defined: after just a few corners, the initially leading Auer slowed down, of all places in front of the Mercedes grandstand, and handed the lead to his fellow Mercedes driver Engel.

Engel's team-mate Jules Gounon meanwhile also tried to provide support by defending fiercely against Thomas Preining in the fight for eighth place and at least holding up the Austrian briefly. After a successful overtaking move, however, the Porsche driver continued his fightback.

Wittmann also quickly found his rhythm after the stoppage, picked off Marco Mapelli's Abt-Lamborghini and moved up to fourth position.

Glock and Preining, who had previously been duelling for seventh place, came in for the mandatory tyre change at the same time. Because the stop for the Dorr squad did not go smoothly, the former Formula 1 driver already dropped behind Preining.

To make matters worse, he collided shortly afterwards on cold tyres with Gounon's Winward-AMG, which had already completed its pitstop and brought its tyres up to temperature. Glock spun, damaged the front end of his car and initially dropped well back in the overall classification before having to park his McLaren for good.

Engel suffers pitstop delay

The real drama in the title fight, however, came at Engel's pitstop, when the right-rear wheel jammed and the Winward-Mercedes driver was stationary for more than 16 seconds. He then returned to the track already behind Auer and Bortolotti, and a little later Wittmann also went past him, to drop Engel to fourth place.

Engel later fought back to overtake Wittmann's Schubert-BMW but in doing so the AMG driver forced his way past roughly in front of the Mercedes grandstand and pushed Wittmann off the track. Race control therefore ordered the positions to be swapped.

Preining had previously already taken advantage of a mistake by Mapelli and taken fifth position from the Abt driver. However, the Austrian, who now has 209 points in the overall standings, still missed out on wrapping up the title early.

Preining remains heavy favourite to seal the title with a 20-point lead over Wittmann and a 22-point advantage over Engel after Saturday's results, with just 28 points left to score over the course of the finale of the 2026 DTM season on Sunday.