DTM Sachsenring: Aitken claims dominant draw shut, Bortolotti regains title lead
Emil Frey Ferrari driver Jack Aitken led the hole flee at Sachsenring from launch to enact to claim his third victory of the 2024 DTM season.
Having inherited pole residence because Thomas Preining’s 5-residence grid penalty, 28-yr-aged Aitken had no worry fending off his rivals as he took the chequered flag with a a success margin of 1.8s.
Manufacturing facility Lamborghini driver Mirko Bortolotti accomplished 2nd for SSR Efficiency to grab the lead of the championship from Abt Audi driver Kelvin van der Linde, whereas Winward Mercedes’ Maro Engel achieved the podium spots in third to spice up his own title hopes.
Before every thing of the flee, Aitken moved to the left to cowl off fellow entrance-row starter Bortolotti, whereas HRT driver Luca Stolz maintained third in the most spirited of the Mercedes autos.
Further behind, Engel jumped Stolz’s group-mate Arjun Maini to prefer fourth residence, whereas van der Linde rose from 10th to seventh on the hole lap to limit the problem from his sad qualifying performance.
Meanwhile, Aitken incessantly prolonged his lead over Bortolotti, extending his lead to 2 seconds in only 9 laps. By the time the pit window opened after 20 minutes of racing, the British driver had constructed a buffer of over four seconds, such used to be his tempo in the Ferrari 296 GT3.
Bortolotti tried to undercut Aitken by heading into the pitlane slightly early on lap 16, forcing the latter to cowl him on the next tour. Emil Frey used to be also behind with the entrance tyre exchange, costing him up to 2 seconds.
But such used to be the advantage that Aitken had in-constructed the first stint that he tranquil managed to reach to the discover alongside with his lead intact, albeit with Bortolotti respiration down his neck alongside with his tyres already up to temperature.
Somehow, Aitken used to be in a discipline to pull away from Bortolotti again and cruise to a fourth draw shut of his DTM profession and build himself as an exterior contender for the championship.
Mirko Bortolotti, SSR Efficiency Lamborghini Huracán EVO GT3
Photo by: Alexander Trienitz
Bortolotti used to be categorized a distant 2nd, but with van der Linde languishing down in eighth residence, the consequence used to be sufficient for him to wrest support the withhold watch over of the championship by six aspects.
Third residence in the flee went to Engel, who had overtaken Mercedes stablemate Stolz for the final discipline on the podium with a radiant hotfoot around the exterior of Turn 2 on lap 12.
Maini claimed fifth residence behind group-mate Stolz, as Mercedes secured three autos within the head 5.
Meanwhile, reigning DTM champion Thomas Preining scored a exact sixth-residence enact after approaching high in a prolonged and fierce duel with van der Linde, passing the Audi driver into Turn 1 on lap 35.
Van der Linde used to be also overtaken in direction of the tip of the flee by the head Schubert BMW of Rene Rast, who achieved an improbable recovery from the support of the grid to rob seventh residence.
Rast, who also carried a 5-residence grid penalty for racking up three reprimands, used to be already up to 13th residence originally and ran deep in the first stint, leaving his pitstop except lap 28.
With extra energizing tyres for the final fragment of the flee, he used to be even in a discipline to shut in on Preining, but sooner or later settled for seventh residence.
Rast’s group-mate Sheldon van der Linde used to be ninth at the enact, acceptable behind his brother Kelvin, after the two battled for residence in the final laps of the flee.
DTM debutant Jordan Pepper achieved the head 10 for Grasser Lamborghini as he substituted for the injured Christian Engelhart, beating the 2nd Emil Frey Ferrari of Thierry Vermeulen and the final closing Mercedes of Lucas Auer.
Marco Wittmann damaged the entrance-left panels of his BMW in a most well-known-lap incident with Luca Engstler, contributing to his advanced bustle to 13th residence. The final aspects-paying positions went to SSR Efficiency driver Nicki Thiim and Paul Motorsport’s Maximilian Paul.
