SPIELBERG, Austria — For René Rast, the Red Bull Ring remains a successful place.
The BMW works driver from Schubert Motorsport won the 14th DTM race on the Alpine circuit on Sunday, repeating his success from last year. With a clever strategy and an almost flawless drive, the 37-year-old secured his 28th DTM victory in total.
The event and all DTM races air LIVE on SPEED SPORT 1.
“I really enjoy the races at the Red Bull Ring,” said Rast. “That makes the victory all the more beautiful. My start was not good, and then I had to work my way up from fourth place. In the final phase, I kept seeing Thomas Preining in the rear-view mirror. I knew that I couldn’t make a single mistake.”
Second place went to local hero Thomas Preining in the Porsche 911 GT3 R from Manthey EMA. Arjun Maini from the Mercedes-AMG Team HRT once again showed a strong performance and, as in the Saturday race, finished third on the podium. Championship leader Mirko Bortolotti from SSR Performance was able to extend his lead to 15 points with fourth place.
His closest rival Kelvin van der Linde completed the top five in the Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo2 from Abt Sportsline. 41,000 visitors experienced the penultimate DTM stop in Spielberg, Austria.
Polesitter Bortolotti was the dominant player in the first part of the race. Behind the leading Lamborghini factory driver, Luca Engstler from the Lamborghini Team Liqui Moly by GRT took second place. Behind him, there was a tough battle for position between Rast and Preining, who had started Sunday’s race from the second row. Rast was able to work his way up to second place as the race progressed, followed behind the three-time champion by Engstler, Preining and Lamborghini driver Franck Perera from the Lamborghini Team TGI by GRT.
The mandatory pit stops threw the top five into disarray. Rast changed his Pirelli slicks later than his competitors and then came out on the track ahead of Bortolotti, who had been in the lead until then, but was overtaken shortly afterwards by Preining and a little later by Arjun Maini (IND) in the Mercedes-AMG GT3. Second overall Kelvin van der Linde in the Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo2 from Abt Sportsline had moved up to fifth place. Rast lost a large part of his lead in the final part of the race against the charging Preining, but never let the Austrian get within striking distance. After 39 laps, the BMW driver crossed the finish line first, ahead of Preining, Maini, Bortolotti and Kelvin van der Linde.
Sheldon van der Linde drove a second BMW M4 GT3 from Schubert Motorsport to sixth place. Ayhancan Güven had tough wheel-to-wheel duels with his competitors and finished seventh in the second 911 from Manthey EMA.
Third-placed Maro Engel gained five positions and was able to stay in touch with the top of the table with eighth place. Perera finished the 14th DTM race in ninth place, the best Ferrari driver was Jack Aitken from Emil Frey Racing in 10th place.