Nüberg, Germany — Seven different winners in eight races. DTM has had an exciting and varied first half of the season. The second half begins at the Nürburgring (Aug. 16-18), and one driver is traveling to the Eifel with particular anticipation: Kelvin van der Linde.
“I’m finally back in the racing car. I’ve almost always performed well at the Nürburgring in the past and have already celebrated many successes. I’m looking forward to the weekend,” said the South African.
This year, van der Linde has impressed with one win and a total of three podium places. Will the Audi driver from Abt Sportsline storm to the top of the table at the Nürburgring? Van der Linde is going into the second half of the season as the closest rival to leader Mirko Bortolotti (Italy). The Lamborghini factory driver from SSR Performance recently took over the overall lead from van der Linde at the Norisring and is leading by a narrow margin of six points.
The sprint version of the Nürburgring is one of the shortest tracks on the DTM calendar. Nevertheless, the 3.629-kilometer-long asphalt strip offers a varied course with winding sections and long curves.
“The passion of the fans is very special at the Nürburgring. Three years ago I won the DTM race there, plus two victories in the 24-hour race and the shared DTM podium with my brother Sheldon,” said van der Linde.
With the latter experience, he created a first in 2022. At that time, the duo celebrated the first and to date only double success of a pair of brothers in the DTM – BMW driver Sheldon won ahead of Kelvin.
“Our strength this season is that we are consistently scoring points and have not had a single retirement so far,” van der Linde said, summarizing the season.
He finished in the top six in five of the eight championship races and always placed his Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo2 in the points.
“We were only able to get one pole position in qualifying, but we performed strongly in the races,” he said.
The 28-year-old experienced his most successful weekend in the first half of the DTM at the Dekra Lausitzring, where he celebrated his only win of the season so far and scored 48 of his 98 points. The Kempten resident, who has also had German citizenship since the beginning of July, wants to follow up with another gala performance at the Nürburgring.
Despite all his ambitions for the overall lead, van der Linde must also look in the rearview mirror, because the chasing trio behind Bortolotti are very close together. Only five points separate van der Linde and BMW driver René Rast (Bregenz/Schubert Motorsport) in third place. His lead over Monegasque Maro Engel (Mercedes-AMG Team Winward) is ten points.
Thanks to this exciting starting position in the DTM title fight, one thing is clear: fans can expect exciting race weekends after the summer break. After the fifth tour stop at the Nürburgring, the DTM stars will head to the Sachsenring (Sept. 6-8). The second foreign event of the year at the Red Bull Ring (Sept. 27-29) in Austria will usher in the hot final phase of the season, before the showdown traditionally takes place at the Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg (Oct. 18-20).
All DTM races can be seen on SPEED SPORT 1.