NUREMBERG, Germany — Nicki Thiim from SSR Performance won his first DTM race on Sunday at the Norisring.
The Lamborghini driver and his father Kurt Thiim are the first father-son team in the 40-year history of DTM to be on the winners’ list of the racing series.
Kurt Thiim achieved two of his 20 victories on the street circuit in Nuremberg.
The event was broadcast LIVE by SPEED SPORT 1.
“As a young boy, I watched my father’s DTM races here, and a win at the Norisring was always at the top of my bucket list,” Nicki Thiim said. “Repeating my father’s success feels incredible, especially after the difficult season so far. The moments after crossing the finish line were very emotional for me.”
Mercedes-AMG driver Maro Engel put in a strong performance in his 100th DTM race and celebrated his anniversary by finishing second. Thiim’s teammate Mirko Bortolotti finished third and is now the new leader of the table going into the second half of the season. 1
10,000 visitors experienced an exciting 40-year DTM anniversary weekend on the only street circuit in Germany with plenty of action on and off the track.
As It Happened
Polesitter Thiim confirmed his good form at the start of the eighth DTM race and steadily extended his lead over his teammate Bortolotti in the first half of the race. Engel followed in third place, followed by the previous overall leader Kelvin van der Linde in the Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo2 from Abt Sportsline and Mercedes-AMG driver Luca Stolz in fourth and fifth place.
When the pit stop window opened after 20 minutes, strategist Engel struck. The experienced driver was one of the first drivers to change his Pirelli tires and was then able to overtake Bortolotti, who was in front of him and had come into the pits one lap later, with the already warmed-up tires.
Front-runner Thiim completed a perfect pit stop and returned to the track in the lead ahead of Engel and Bortolotti. Around 10 minutes before the end, the safety car was deployed because a carbon part had to be recovered from the track. After the restart, the top three held their positions – Thiim crossed the finish line as the winner after 69 laps.
Behind the top trio, Arjun Maini in the Mercedes-AMG from Mercedes-AMG Team HRT took fourth place after a flawless performance. Finishing fifth, Saturday’s winner René Rast in the BMW M4 GT3 from Schubert Motorsport once again proved his determination and gained 14 places compared to the start.
The current champion Thomas Preining started the race in 12th and was able to improve to sixth in the Porsche 911 GT3 R from the Manthey EMA team after strong overtaking maneuvers in the last laps. Stolz finished the Sunday race on the Nuremberg street circuit in seventh place. Ayhancan Güven (TR) was classified in eighth place in the second Porsche from Manthey EMA, followed by Kelvin van der Linde.
The South African, who started fourth, fell far behind after contact with Ferrari driver Jack Aitken from the Emil Frey Racing team and finished ninth ahead of Lucas Auer. Van der Linde thus gave up the lead in the standings to Bortolotti and finished the first half of the season in second place. Rast is third in the overall standings.