Emil Frey Ferrari driver Jack Aitken led the opening race at Sachsenring from begin to end to assert his third victory of the 2024 DTM season.
Having inherited pole place on account of Thomas Preining’s five-place grid penalty, 28-year-old Aitken had no bother warding off his rivals as he took the chequered flag with a profitable margin of 1.8s.
Manufacturing facility Lamborghini driver Mirko Bortolotti completed second for SSR Efficiency to grab the lead of the championship from Abt Audi driver Kelvin van der Linde, whereas Winward Mercedes’ Maro Engel accomplished the rostrum spots in third to spice up his personal title hopes.
In the beginning of the race, Aitken moved to the left to cowl off fellow front-row starter Bortolotti, whereas HRT driver Luca Stolz maintained third in the perfect of the Mercedes vehicles.
Additional behind, Engel jumped Stolz’s team-mate Arjun Maini to seize fourth place, whereas van der Linde rose from tenth to seventh on the opening lap to restrict the harm from his poor qualifying efficiency.
In the meantime, Aitken steadily prolonged his lead over Bortolotti, extending his result in two seconds in simply 9 laps. By the point the pit window opened after 20 minutes of racing, the British driver had constructed a buffer of over 4 seconds, such was his tempo within the Ferrari 296 GT3.
Bortolotti tried to undercut Aitken by heading into the pitlane comparatively early on lap 16, forcing the latter to cowl him on the subsequent tour. Emil Frey was additionally gradual with the entrance tyre change, costing him as much as two seconds.
However such was the benefit that Aitken had constructed within the first stint that he nonetheless managed to return to the observe together with his lead intact, albeit with Bortolotti respiration down his neck together with his tyres already as much as temperature.
In the end, Aitken was capable of draw back from Bortolotti once more and cruise to a fourth win of his DTM profession and set up himself as an out of doors contender for the championship.
Mirko Bortolotti, SSR Efficiency Lamborghini Huracán EVO GT3
Picture by: Alexander Trienitz
Bortolotti was categorised a distant second, however with van der Linde languishing down in eighth place, the end result was sufficient for him to wrest again the management of the championship by six factors.
Third place within the race went to Engel, who had overtaken Mercedes stablemate Stolz for the ultimate spot on the rostrum with a superb move across the exterior of Flip 2 on lap 12.
Maini claimed fifth place behind team-mate Stolz, as Mercedes secured three vehicles inside the highest 5.
In the meantime, reigning DTM champion Thomas Preining scored a stable sixth-place end after approaching prime in a protracted and fierce duel with van der Linde, passing the Audi driver into Flip 1 on lap 35.
Van der Linde was additionally overtaken in direction of the tip of the race by the highest Schubert BMW of Rene Rast, who accomplished an unbelievable restoration from the again of the grid to take seventh place.
Rast, who additionally carried a five-place grid penalty for racking up three reprimands, was already as much as thirteenth place at first and ran deep within the first stint, leaving his pitstop till lap 28.
With brisker tyres for the ultimate a part of the race, he was even capable of shut in on Preining, however finally settled for seventh place.
Rast’s team-mate Sheldon van der Linde was ninth on the end, simply behind his brother Kelvin, after the 2 battled for place within the closing laps of the race.
DTM debutant Jordan Pepper accomplished the highest 10 for Grasser Lamborghini as he substituted for the injured Christian Engelhart, beating the second Emil Frey Ferrari of Thierry Vermeulen and the final remaining Mercedes of Lucas Auer.
Marco Wittmann broken the front-left panels of his BMW in a first-lap incident with Luca Engstler, contributing to his powerful run to thirteenth place. The ultimate points-paying positions went to SSR Efficiency driver Nicki Thiim and Paul Motorsport’s Maximilian Paul.
