DTM
The DTM championship arrived at the Red Bull Ring for its penultimate race weekend. Two races were on offer, one on Saturday and one on Sunday. In the previous races, 10 different drivers stood on the top step of the podium, showing perfect equalisation of the field. Leading the championship was Mirko Bortolotti in front of Thomas Preining by 9 points.
Friday proved to be unrepresentative for the rest of the weekend as the last minutes of sunshine were seen in the afternoon. The two free practices were led by Jusuf Owega and Sheldon van der Linde.
Overnight showers meant the Saturday morning qualifying was impacted by wet track while drying conditions resulted in some teams trying slicks. Even with a red flag caused by David Schumacher crashing into the barriers in the area of the MotoGP chicane, there was not enough time for the track to dry out and drivers on wet tires prevailed. Pole position was taken by Laurin Heinrich in the new Porsche 911 GT3 R with the top 6 bellow.
Qualifying 1 results:
1. #75 Lauring Heinrich, KÜS Team Bernhard, Porsche 911 GT3 R, 1:36.778
2. #3 Kelvin van der Linde, Abt Sportsline, Audi R8 LMS Evo2, 1:36.843
3. #24 Ayhancan Güven, KÜS Team Bernhard, Porsche 911 GT3 R,1:36
4. #91 Thomas Preining, Manthey EMA, Porsche 911 GT3 R, 1:36.954
5. #90 Dennis Olsen, Manthey EMA, Porsche 911 GT3 R, 1:36.978
6. #48 Maro Engel, Mercedes-AMG Team Landgraf, Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo, 1:36.985
The first race started in the wet with drying track. This meant half of the field decided to take slicks for the start. It wasn't a good call, all of them struggled to find enough traction and were losing valuable time to the wet-shod pack at the front. The leading group was headed by Laurin Heinrich, Maro Engel and Kelvin van der Linde, who had to fight his way to the front after having a poor start. Before the pit window opened, a racing line started to appear and the race had started between the pit crews, who would have the best strategy. Kelvin van der Linde managed to time the switch to slicks perfectly and after his pit stop and when the pit window closed, he emerged in front of the previous leaders. Immediately after the pit window closed, the safety car interrupted the race when Clemens Schmid spun into the gravel the Ferrari of Thierry Vermeulen. On the restart Kelvin van der Linde managed to pull a nice gap to the rest of the field and after 15 minutes of racing took the chequered flag as the winner for the first time since 2021. He was followed by Lauring Heinrich and the battling group of Engel, Preining, Feller and Rast. This group produced exciting battles though as Thomas Preining forcefully overtook Engel into turn 3 which allowed Feller to come through. Race control forced Preining to return the position back to Engel, which put Feller into P3, but also allowed Rast to opportunistically overtake both of them as well. In the final minutes Rast repeatedly drove fastest laps of the race, but even after having multiple opportunities and numerous contacts wasn't able to overtake Feller. Bortolotti managed to stay in the lead of the championship by finishing 9th. At the end of the race this was the top 8.
Race 1 results:
1. #3 Kelvin van der Linde, Abt Sportsline, Audi R8 LMS Evo2, 37 laps
2. #75 Lauring Heinrich, KÜS Team Bernhard, Porsche 911 GT3 R, +1.306 s
3. #7 Ricardo Feller, Abt Sportsline, Audi R8 LMS Evo2, +6.631 s
4. #33 René Rast, Schubert Motorsport, BMW M4 GT3, +6.899 s
5. #48 Maro Engel, Mercedes-AMG Team Landgraf, Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo, +9.379 s
6. #91 Thomas Preining, Manthey EMA, Porsche 911 GT3 R, +9.863 s
7. #4 Luca Stolz, Mercedes-AMG Team HRT, Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo, +10.477 s
8. #11 Marco Wittmann, Project 1, BMW M4 GT3, +10.763 s
As there was no rain overnight, saunday's Qualifying was all dry. These conditions again demonstrated how close the DTM field is - 25 drivers within 1 second of the leader - René Rast. BMWs showed their strength at Red Bull Ring again with three of them in the top 5. Thomas Preining put his Porsche in 4th place while championship leader Mirko Bortolotti would start from 9th position.
Qualifying 2 results:
1. #33 René Rast, Schubert Motorsport, BMW M4 GT3, 1:27.671
2. #1 Sheldon van der Linde, Schubert Motorsport, BMW M4 GT3, 1:27.782
3. #14 Jack Aitken, Emil Frey Racing, Ferrari 296 GT3, 1:27.873
4. #91 Thomas Preining, Manthey EMA, Porsche 911 GT3 R,1:27.882
5.#11 Marco Wittmann, Project 1, BMW M4 GT3,1:27.948
6. #63 Clemens Schmid, GRT Grasser Racing Team, Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2, 1:27.958
René Rast managed to keep the first place after starting from pole position, but the first three corners were full of drama. First Tim Heinemann spun Kelvin van der Linde in the first corner and then in the third corner Marvin Dienst touched the rear of Mirko Bortolotti's Lamborghini causing him a puncture. This left him waiting for a safety car that would never come. Great battles were all around the field while the top 3 stabilised with Rast, Sheldon van der Linde and Thomas Preining putting a nice margin on the rest of the field. Marco Wittmann was putting pressure on Clemens Schmid in the 4th place and managed to overtake him into turn 4. At the same time light rain started to appear, but it never increased to a point of wet tyre conditions. Promising qualifying from Jack Aitken turned into a battle for 8th place with his team mate and the Ferraris never looked like favourites for the top positions. Pit stops had limited effect on the result of the race and René Rast sailed to his first DTM race win as a BMW factory driver. He was followed by Sheldon van der Linde, giving Schubert Motorsport a double podium and Thomas Preining in 3rd, who managed to get back into the lead of the championship. Mirko Bortolotti never recovered from the puncture and finished in 21st position, after he overtook Alessio Deledda and was gifted 6 positions from retirements.
Race 2 results:
1. #33 René Rast, Schubert Motorsport, BMW M4 GT3, 41 laps
2. #1 Sheldon van der Linde, Schubert Motorsport, BMW M4 GT3, +1.263 s
3. #91 Thomas Preining, Manthey EMA, Porsche 911 GT3 R, +4.723 s
4. #11 Marco Wittmann, Project 1, BMW M4 GT3, +7.316 s
5. #90 Dennis Olsen, Manthey EMA, Porsche 911 GT3 R, +11.907 s
6. #63 Clemens Schmid, GRT Grasser Racing Team, Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2, +13.216 s
7. #24 Ayhancan Güven, KÜS Team Bernhard, Porsche 911 GT3 R, +16.292 s
8. #14 Jack Aitken, Emil Frey Racing, Ferrari 296 GT3, +18.261 s
With the Red Bull Ring weekend done and dusted and 56 point up for grabs at Hockenheim, only 4 drivers have a mathematical chance of clinching the championship, with only the top 2 being realistic contenders. The championship standing looks like this.
Championship standings after 14/16 races (top 4):
1. #91 Thomas Preining, Manthey EMA, Porsche 911 GT3 R, 190 points
2. #92 Mirko Bortolotti, SSR Performance, Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2, 180 points
3. #7 Ricardo Feller, Abt Sportsline, Audi R8 LMS Evo2, 159 points
4. #1 Sheldon van der Linde, Schubert Motorsport, BMW M4 GT3,138 points
ADAC GT Masters
ADAC has taken over the DTM series and made it their main series. Over the winter they considered what to do with their past top series - ADAC GT Masters. Multiple concepts were evaluated and in the end the series stayed with the same format. Sadly though the calendar was released so late in the year 2023, that most teams have left the series for different championships. This resulted in small fields around 10 cars with season high of 15 on the Nürburgring, compared to hygh 20s in previous year. The traditional format included 2 races over the weekend with one on Saturday and one on Sunday.
The first qualifying was held in the wet and even though some tried slicks, Benjamin Hitest put the #63 Grasser Lamborghini on the pole position on wets. Saturday's race was won on the road by #63 GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini of Benjamin Hites and Marco Mapelli, who together with second placed #48 Landgraf Motorsport Mercedes were disqualified for technical infringements. This gave the victory to #10 FK Performance Motorsport duo of Maxime Oosten and Bruno Spengler in BMW M4 GT3 with small margin of 0.148 s ahead of #20 Schubert Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 of Eduardo Coseteng and Ben Green. Third place was given to the #25 Huber Motorsport Porsche of Jannes Fittje and Nico Menzel.
Sunday's running was completely opposite to Saturday. Morning qualifying was in dry conditions, but from the start of the race the rain was falling. Qualifying was won by #19 Team Joos by RACEmotion Porsche of Christian Engelhart. The race was dominated by the polesitting #19 991-gen Porsche 911 GT3 R started by Christian Engelhart and finished by Michael Joos. Their success was completed by the team car #91 of Finn Gehrsitz and Sven Müller finishing second. The final step on the podium was taken by #3 Haupt Motorsport Mercedes of Petru Umbrarescu and Philip Ellis.
Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland
Typical support series for ADAC and DTM is the Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland. Except for two weekends, it was a support series for DTM this year and Red Bull Ring was no different. Teams are running the same Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars of 992-gen with limited options in car setup.
Two races took place over the weekend, one was won by #25 of Larry ten Voorde ahead of #19 of Harry King and #99 of Bastian Buus. Second race was won by #99 of Bastian Buus followed by #24 of Loek Hartog and #19 of Harry King. Two races on Hockenheim remain with Larry ten voorde in the lead of the championship.
Porsche Carrera Cup Benelux
Similar series to PCC Deutschland, but mainly focused on local circuits from Benelux, was another Benelux championship after the Supercar Challenge in May, which visited Red Bull Ring this year. The two races were won by #46 driven by Robert de Haan. Second race had to be red flagged right after a safety car start proved the conditions were too wet for safe running, but after a 30 minute delay the race was restarted. Because Red Bull Ring was the final race of the season for the championship, after six victories in the season, Robert de Haan was crowned as the champion.
BMW M2 Cup
The DTM weekend is usually joined by BMW M2 Cup. One race was held each day of the weekend. The first was won by #46 driven by Leyton Fourie and the second by #55 of Colin Jamie Bönighausen.
