Monza DTM: Lawson claims debut win in Red Bull Ferrari

The 19-year-old Kiwi, making his first start in a GT car alongside his main campaign in Formula 2, leapfrogged a quartet of Mercedes cars with a relatively early stop in his AF Corse-run Ferrari 488 GT3 to give Red Bull victory on its return to the series.

It was Ferrari's first win in the series, which has moved to GT3 regulations this year, and the first for any non-German manufacturer in the DTM since Nicola Larini's victory for Alfa Romeo in the 1996 International Touring Car Championship race for DTM cars at Sao Paolo.

Lawson beat poleman Vincent Abril's Haupt Racing Team Mercedes by 1.63s after Ferrari, BMW and Audi were all handed a pre-race performance boost by DTM’s BoP partner AVL Racing, with Mercedes cars having locked out the top four spots on the grid.

At the start, Abril led the field from Daniel Juncadella's GruppeM Mercedes, as Maximilian Gotz (HRT) jumped Lucas Auer (Winward Mercedes) to move up to third.

Lawson made a brave getaway from seventh on the grid, clearing the T3 Lamborghini of Esteban Muth on the run to the first chicane before gaining another place due to a retirement for Winward driver Philip Ellis.

The order at the front then began to to stabilise, with much of the field running nose to tail.

Audi duo Nico Muller, Mike Rockenfeller, and Lamborghini driver Esmee Hawkey triggered the pitstop sequence at the end of lap five of 28, with Lawson following them four laps later.

That allowed Lawson to come out in clean air, which proved to be decisive in the fight for victory.

Start action, Vincent Abril, Haupt Racing Team Mercedes AMG GT3 leads

Photo by: Alexander Trienitz

So when Abril finally headed to the pits on lap 11, he was unable to fend off Lawson on cold tyres, the Ferrari passing him into Turn 2 to take the net race lead.

From there on, Lawson enjoyed a clear run to the finish, even though Abril was able to close the gap back up to 1.6s in the closing laps on fresher tyres.

Gotz made it two Mercedes-AMG GT3s on the podium in third, while Lawson's team-mate Alex Albon charged from 14th to fourth in the AlphaTauri-liveried Ferrari.

The Red Bull Formula 1 reserve driver pitted a lap after Lawson but had to work his way through traffic, with both Muller and Kelvin van der Linde overtaking him on his out lap.

However, Albon was able to repass the Audi duo and then fend off the Mercedes of Juncadella to take fourth at the flag.

Gary Paffett’s stand-in Maximilian Buhk was the last driver to make a pitstop, with a lengthy first stint elevating him to seventh behind Juncadella and van der Linde’s Abt Sportsline-run R8 LMS GT3.

Team Rosberg driver Muller was nudged into a spin going into the second chicane by Juncadella, but the Swiss driver recovered well to finish eighth, less than two seconds behind Buhk's Mucke Mercedes.

BMWs enjoyed better pace in the race after qualifying near the rear of the grid, with two-time DTM champion Marco Wittmann propelling the Walkenhorst M6 to ninth at the finish ahead of 2013 title winner Rockenfeller's Abt Audi.

Auer finished outside the points in 13th after a lengthy pitstop, with the Winward mechanics struggling to detach the rear-left wheel gun on his Mercedes.

Abt driver Dev Gore joined Ellis in retirement after contact with Timo Glock’s Rowe Racing BMW at Turn 1 on lap two.

Cla	Driver	Car	Time	Gap
1	Liam Lawson	Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020	51'25.637
2	Vincent Abril	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	51'27.267	1.630
3	Maximilian Götz	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	51'28.273	2.636
4	Alex Albon	Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020	51'32.713	7.076
5	Daniel Juncadella	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	49'44.004	1 Lap
6	Kelvin van der Linde	Audi R8 LMS Evo	51'42.015	16.378
7	Maximilian Buhk	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	51'43.252	17.615
8	Nico Müller	Audi R8 LMS Evo	51'45.039	19.402
9	Marco Wittmann	BMW M6 GT3	51'46.154	20.517
10	Mike Rockenfeller	Audi R8 LMS Evo	51'48.818	23.181
11	Esteban Muth	Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo	51'50.592	24.955
12	Sheldon Van Der Linde	BMW M6 GT3	48'14.072	2 Laps
13	Lucas Auer	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	50'04.185	1 Lap
14	Arjun Maini	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	51'54.799	29.162
15	Esmee Hawkey	Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo	52'04.277	38.640
16	Sophia Flörsch	Audi R8 LMS Evo	52'06.458	40.821
17	Timo Glock	BMW M6 GT3	52'11.426	45.789
18	Dev Gore	Audi R8 LMS Evo	3'47.107	26 Laps
19	Philip Ellis	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	1'51.073	27 Laps
View full results