(Motorsport-Total.com) – Maiden victory for Landgraf Motorsport in the DTM: Maro Engel bestowed the “Mamba”, the striking yellow painted Mercedes-AMG GT3 #48, on the Circuit Zandvoort with its first victory in the DTM. For Engel it is the second DTM victory after Moscow in 2017. (Result 1st race)
Maro Engel clinched a clear victory in the DTM at Zandvoort
The triumph was achieved with a safe drive from pole position. The “Mamba” was already in the lead in the first corner, after that Engel never looked back and gradually increased the lead to exactly six seconds until the finish line.
He drove so confidently that he didn’t even have to worry about an undercut during the pit stop. He put in two laps longer than his immediate rivals, there was a bit of a snag in the front left, but the Monaco-based German still came out with a clear lead. For Klaus Landgraf’s team it is the biggest individual success in the team’s history.
“It’s never boring in the car, but when you’re so far ahead you want a race like today. I can only thank the whole team. They worked extremely hard and gave me a great car. It was really fun done,” said the 37-year-old after the race.
Sheldon doesn’t give Perera a chance
Behind them, Sheldon van der Linde (Schubert-BMW) claimed second place. The defending champion defended his second position in the first corner against an attack from Marco Wittmann (Project-1-BMW; 5th). “Simply brilliant. We all know what happened in Oschersleben. That just wasn’t my weekend,” says the defending champion.
The South African could not afford to make any mistakes: in the first stint, Wittmann and Franck Perera (SSR-Lamborghini; 3rd) were still pushing each other, after the stop only Perera was breathing down the neck of the red BMW M4 GT3. But van der Linde kept his nerve and didn’t give the Frenchman the slightest chance.
With his second podium of the season, the winner of the season opener also took the lead in the overall standings – especially since championship leader Tim Heinemann (Toksport-Porsche; 19th) failed to score points on a day when all Porsche 911 GT3s struggled.
Behind them, Mirko Bortolotti underscored another strong performance by the SSR Lamborghinis with fourth place. Like his team-mate Perera, he benefited from a slow stop by Wittmann.
Although he missed the podium with fifth place due to the too long pit stop, he underlined the clearly improved form of Project 1 after the difficult start in Oschersleben. Like the other drivers in the top 5, he benefited from a good starting position that he had worked for in qualifying.
Sheldon van der Linde confirms: “Qualifying was extremely important, especially since you can’t overtake here in Zandvoort. We made it into the top 3. And we know that when you’re at the front in the DTM, good things happen. You can overtake not here, so we need another good qualifying session tomorrow.”
Penalty for Kelvin, out for Schumacher
Lucas Auer (Winward-Mercedes; 6th) was the first driver to start the race from outside the top 10 and finished twelfth on the grid. The Austrian, who had a serious accident at the Daytona 24 Hours earlier this year, got off to a great start on the first lap and was already in the top 10.
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He was given another place because Kelvin an der Linde (Abt-Audi; 12th) had to go into the penalty loop because of an incorrect starting position. This dropped him from fifth to places outside the top 10.
For Jusuf Owega (Landgraf-Mercedes; 10th), after a strong initial phase in which he was even ahead of Auer, things only went backwards. First a pit stop, then a collision with latecomer Alessio Deledda (SSR-Lamborghini; 24th), who hadn’t stopped at the time, and finally an attack by Rast’s substitute Dries Vanthoor (Schubert-BMW; 9th) threw him up P10 back. Auer finished sixth.
Seventh place went to the best Porsche driver. Thomas Preining (Manthey-EMA-Porsche) benefited from a strong pit stop by the Manthey crew and as a result improved from twelfth to seventh place.
And that despite the fact that his Porsche 911 GT3 R was 25 kilograms heavier than last time at Oschersleben – 20 kilograms due to the reclassification in the BoP, five kilograms as a placement weight for third place in the second race in Oschersleben.
Aitken reserve driver Albert Costa secured a good result for Emil Frey Racing with eighth place. The Ferrari driver briefly clashed with Owega in the starting phase, but this had no consequences.
A grinding tire had major consequences for David Schumacher (Winward-Mercedes; DNF), who slipped into the gravel bed in the dreaded Scheivlak curve and had to park his Mercedes-AMG GT3 in the pits. At the same time, it was over for Laurin Heinrich (Bernhard-Porsche; DNF).
Local hero Thierry Vermeulen (Emil-Frey-Ferrari; DNF) also didn’t see the checkered flag at his home game. The power steering on his Ferrari 296 GT3 failed after an already weak race.
The second qualifying session is scheduled for Sunday at 9.10 a.m. and the second race at 1 p.m.