SPIELBERG, Austria — Maro Engel (Monaco/Mercedes-AMG Team Ravenol) secured a clear victory in the second DTM race of the season on Sunday at the Red Bull Ring.
The veteran driver overtook the leading Kelvin van der Linde (ZA/Schubert Motorsport) midway through the race and celebrated his third DTM win after 37 laps.
“I’m overjoyed to have finally won a championship race again,” the Mercedes-AMG driver rejoiced over his first DTM triumph since June 2023. “After things unfortunately didn’t work out on Saturday, the victory feels all the sweeter. The key was a superb start, allowing me to immediately move up to second place.”
Second place went to the tactically astute Marco Wittmann (Fürth/Schubert Motorsport), who had started the race in ninth position. Local hero Lucas Auer (A/Mercedes-AMG Team Landgraf) returned to the podium in his home race, finishing third after his second-place finish on Saturday.
The DTM season kicked off for the first time on the Formula 1 circuit in the Alps. 51,000 spectators experienced the opening race live on site.
The veteran driver gained three places right at the beginning, improving to second position behind polesitter Kelvin van der Linde (ZA/Schubert Motorsport). His fellow BMW driver Auer followed in third, while Wittmann was seventh in his BMW M4 GT3 Evo at that point.
After the first pit stop, Engel took the lead. Wittmann, who made his tire change very early, fought his way up to second place after overtaking van der Linde and Auer. Jules Gounon (F/Mercedes-AMG Team Mann-Filter) followed in fifth.
Even after the second mandatory pit stop, Engel remained in the lead and continued to pull away from his rivals. At the finish, he had a 4.857-second advantage over Wittmann. Auer crossed the line in third place, while Gounon and Nicki Thiim (DK/Comtoyou Racing) secured fourth and fifth positions, respectively.
Polesitter van der Linde was unable to replicate his strong qualifying performance and finished the second championship race in Styria in sixth place. Ben Dörr (Butzbach/Dörr Motorsport) piloted his McLaren 720S GT3 Evo to seventh.
Rookie Finn Wiebelhaus (Obertshausen/HRT Ford Racing) secured his first top-10 finish in the DTM, taking eighth place in his Ford Mustang GT3. The best Ferrari driver was Thierry Vermeulen (NL/Emil Frey Racing) in ninth. Young driver Bastian Buus (DK/Land-Motorsport) finished Sunday’s race in 10th place.