MotorSport
HRT Mercedes driver Luca Stolz claimed his first victory of the 2024 DTM season in race two at the Sachsenring on Sunday after long-time leader Thierry Vermeulen was penalised for a pitstop infringement.
Max Verstappen’s protege Vermeulen had appeared on course for his maiden DTM victory having dominated the race from pole position, in a carbon copy of the performance put in by his Emil Frey Ferrari team-mate Jack Aitken on Saturday.
But with just under 15 minutes to go, race control handed the Dutchman a penalty ‘lap’ for a mistake on his team’s part, dropping him to third place and gifting Stolz his third career victory in the DTM.
Abt Audi driver Kelvin van der Linde finished second ahead of a recovering Vermeulen, wresting back the control of the championship in the process.
At the start of the race, Vermeulen made a clean launch from pole position into Turn 1, while van der Linde dropped to fourth behind Stolz and Grasser Lamborghini of Luca Engstler.
Vermeulen continued to extend his lead in the first stint of the race over Stolz, while Kelvin van der Linde managed to repass Engstler at Turn 12 to put himself back in the podium position.
By the time the pitstop window opened after 20 minutes of racing, Vermeulen’s lead had grown to 2.7s, having peaked at over three seconds at one stage.
Thierry Vermeulen, Emil Frey Racing Ferrari Ferrari 296 GT3
Photo by: Alexander Trienitz
Stolz was the first of the frontrunners to peel into the pits on lap 17, with Vermeulen following him on the next tour.
This brought the gap down to 1.7s, but the Dutchman had started extending his lead again when the safety car was called in with 25 minutes to go for a collision between debutant Jordan Pepper and Schubert BMW’s Marco Wittmann.
The incident was triggered by three-time champion Rene Rast hitting the rear of Pepper’s GRT Lamborghini into Turn 1, sending him into the path of an innocent Wittmann as they both ended up in the gravel.
Wittmann was furious after the incident, pushing back Pepper when he approached him and then throwing his gloves as he walked to the service road. He later apologised to Pepper for his ‘overreaction’.
When the racing resumed with 19 minutes left on the clock, Vermeulen quickly built up a lead of 1.7s, but his hopes of a maiden win were dashed when he had to go through the long loop for a pitstop infringement. Replays showed a mechanic leaving a tyre on the ground in the pitlane, which is against the regulations.
Vermeulen rejoined in third place behind Stolz and Kelvin van der Linde, with Stolz going on to take Mercedes’ first victory of 2024 by 0.769s.
Vermeulen kept the pressure up on Kelvin van der Linde until the finish, but had to settle for third, which was still good enough for his first podium in the series.
Kelvin van der Linde, Team ABT Sportsline Audi R8 LMS GT3
Photo by: Alexander Trienitz
Second place for Abt driver Kelvin van der Linde, who had benefitted from overnight Balance of Performance boost for Audi, puts him back in the lead of the championship, with his nearest rival Mirko Bortolotti only finishing seventh in the SSR Performance Lamborghini.
Manthey EMA driver Thomas Preining took fourth at the finish, having passed the Winward Mercedes of Maro Engel at the safety car restart when Engel was eyeing a move on Kelvin van der Linde.
Saturday winner Aitken was classified sixth, while Bortolotti could only recover to seventh after qualifying down in 11th place.
Ayanchan Guven was eighth in the other Manthey Porsche, while the two remaining Schubert BMWs completed the top 10, with Sheldon van der Linde leading home Rene Rast.
Rast, who had risen from dead-last on the grid, remains under investigation for the collision with Pepper that also took out Wittmann.
Engstler, who was in podium contention early on, retired with damage after making contact with Guven at Turn 1.
