DTM: Oschersleben 2023
New faces
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It seemed entirely appropriate that the 2023 DTM season began with a podium made up of new faces. In the first race of the new ADAC era, two drivers celebrating up on the rostrum were series debutants, while the third — race winner Franck Perera of SSR Performance — had but a single DTM start to his name. Not only was it a maiden win for the French veteran, but also a first DTM win for Lamborghini, whose ranks SSR had joined this year after switching over from Porsche.
On its return to the narrow, twisting east German circuit of Oschersleben for the first time in almost a decade, DTM provided a chaotic qualifying session for the Saturday season opener in which most drivers waited as late as possible to set quick times, resulting in a rather mixed-up grid. Lamborghini’s Huracan gelled with the circuit immediately: Franck Perera took pole for Porsche refugees SSR Performance, a mite ahead of fellow DTM full-season rookie Jack Aitken, who put series newcomer Emil Frey’s Ferrari 296 second.
Row two was all-Lamborghini, the second SSR Performance Huracan of Mirko Bortolotti just ahead of GT Masters refugee Mick Wishofer of Grasser Racing. Abt’s Ricardo Feller was by far the quickest Audi driver in fifth, leading the best Porsche 911s from Manthey (Thomas Preining) and Toksport WRT (Tim Heinemann) respectively, then three-time champion Rene Rast aboard BMW’s bulky M4 for the very first time. Just as there were some surprises at the top of the order, so there were some unaccustomed names at the back: Lucas Auer could do no better than 18th, reigning champion Sheldon van der Linde had a mountain to climb from 19th, and veteran Maro Engel was 20th.
A cloudless summer’s day loomed overhead as 14 rows of exotic GT3 machinery rolled their way to the green flag. Perera made an exemplary start to take the lead as teammate Bortolotti slipped past Aitken to make it an SSR 1–2. Moments later, Aitken was blindsided by a fast-starting Ricardo Feller too, so as lap one came to an end it was Perera from Bortolotti, Feller and the Emil Frey Ferrari.
Poor Aitken continued to be an outlet for other drivers’ frustrations as fellow DTM debutant Tim Heinemann barged past rudely on the second lap, shouldering the Ferrari out of the way as he went. Heinemann’s actions caught the eye of the stewards, who insisted that the vibrantly-coloured Toksport WRT Porsche hand fourth place back to Aitken.
Now the race began to settle. Perera had a clear pace advantage over his SSR teammate Bortolotti, who was having trouble fending off an insistent Feller. Then came a gap to Aitken, who now seemed quite able to fend off Heinemann, Manthey’s Thomas Preining and Schubert’s Rene Rast for fourth place. Nevertheless, the Brit came in for his mandatory pit-stop as soon as the lane opened after 20 minutes, grateful to get his Ferrari on fresh tyres and out in clean air. After qualifying on the second row, Mick Wishofer’s race had unravelled with a slow start, and at half-distance the DTM newcomer came into the pits to retire his Grasser Lamborghini, slamming the door on his way out.
Up the road, Perera had opened up a six-second buffer to teammate Bortolotti by the time he made his pit-stop. Mirko stayed out a lap longer, but a slow stop from the SSR team saw the Italian plummet down to eighth place before he could get his tyres warmed up. Taking over second place was Tim Heinemann, who had benefitted from an early pit-stop — and great work from the Toksport crew — to get his grey-and-pink 911 up three positions. Not only that, but Heinemann began closing on Perera, closing the gap to under two seconds before the Frenchman put on the afterburners and extended his cushion once more.
Behind the top two, a slow stop for Feller promoted Aitken and Rast to third and fourth, though the three-time champion was being hauled in by the delayed Italian in the closing stages. For lap after lap, Feller’s sleek blue Abt Audi sized up the bulky blue Schubert BMW, the Italian getting increasingly ragged as he tried to force a way past his 2022 teammate. Ricardo finally did it just three minutes from the end, getting the overlap on the BMW out of T3 and surging past on the inside at the quick T4.
The chequered flag greeted Franck Perera after an assured drive from the French veteran to claim his (and Lamborghini’s) first DTM win in only his second start in the series. “This is for everyone. We go for it this year. Fuck off, hah?!” he exclaimed over to the delighted SSR Performance team over the radio on his cool-down lap. Newcomers Heinemann and Aitken rounded out the podium four and eight seconds back respectively. The German was delighted with the result on his debut, whereas the Brit was rather more measured in his enthusiasm, feeling that something more than third could have been salvaged.
Following his late overtake, Feller came away with fourth place ahead of Rast, with the second Abt Audi of Kelvin van der Linde also came out on top in a tight battle, this one waged against Team Bernhard’s Laurin Heinrich over sixth position. Mirko Bortolotti was left an unsatisfied eighth after a wrong strategy call, ahead of Toksport’s Christian Engelhart and the pair of Manthey Porsches, which had lost valuable time with botched pit-stops both.
Behind the leaders, it had been a race of attrition in the summer sunshine. Starting from 21st, Sheldon van der Linde struggled to make any progress, suffered a dreadfully slow pit-stop and eventually retired the Schubert BMW, not a good beginning to the South African’s title defence. Mercedes was also in strife: Maro Engel was the best of the AMGs in a lowly 13th on a day in which Arjun Maini and Luca Stolz both retired. From the Audi camp, Mattia Drudi and Patric Niederhauser were both out of the game early, while rising star Ayhancan Guven impressed with his pace — setting the race’s fastest lap — before a last-minute issue brought the Team75 Motorsport Porsche into the pits just before the chequered flag.
RACE 1 RESULT
- F. Perera — SSR Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 (44 laps)
- T. Heinemann — Toksport WRT Porsche 911 GT3 R (+3.9)
- J. Aitken — Emil Frey Ferrari 296 GT3 (+8.0)
- R. Feller — Abt Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II (+12.6)
- R. Rast — Schubert BMW M4 GT3 (+15.5)
- K. van der Linde — ABT Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II (+16.8)
- L. Heinrich — Team Bernhard Porsche 911 GT3 R (+17.2)
- M. Bortolotti — SSR Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 (+17.7)
- C. Engelhart — Toksport WRT Porsche 911 GT3 R (+18.7)
- D. Olsen — Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3 R (+22.0)
RACE 2
On Sunday, just like the day prior, a vastly experienced GT3 driver new to the DTM took their maiden win in the series. This time it was Christian Engelhart who took the plaudits after a circuitous route to victory from seventh on the grid. Almost unnoticed in the first half of the race, a good strategy call vaulted him up to second place, though a tyre problem meant his pace wasn’t especially convincing. However, a late penalty for leader Thomas Preining of Manthey EMA handed the 36-year-old German a surprise victory on a day when Porsche locked out the top four spots.
After struggling to 11th place in Saturday’s first race, young Porsche ace Thomas Preining hit back by taking pole for Sunday’s second contest. Behind the Manthey EMA Porsche, the grid looked entirely unfamiliar compared to the pecking order established on Saturday. Race 1 winner Franck Perera struggled to 18th on the grid with 20kg of extra ballast, one spot behind Jack Aitken. The only familiar face was Tim Heinemann, who joined Preining on Sunday’s front row after finishing second the day before.
The surprises didn’t stop there either, as Clemens Schmid beat no less a driver than Lamborghini factory ace Mirko Bortolotti to third on the grid for Grasser Racing. Behind them, row three was an all-Porsche affair as Manthey’s Dennis Olsen and Team Bernhard’s Ayhancan Guven faced up against each other, just ahead of Toksport’s Christian Engelhart.
Mercedes looked to have recovered after an awful showing on Saturday. Team Mann-Filter’s veteran/newcomer duo of Maro Engel and Jusuf Owega lined up eighth and ninth, shadowed by Winward’s Lucas Auer. Again BMW was in the doldrums: Rene Rast used all of his ability to lug his Schubert M4 to 11th, while teammate Sheldon van der Linde’s title defence continued to falter as 15th was all the South African could manage.
Another cloudless, scorching day presided over the Saxony countryside as Preining and Heinemann led the colourful, tightly-packed field to the green flag. The Manthey Porsche held onto pole while Schmid built on his surprise third in qualifying by slipping past Heinemann for second. Behind, Dennis Olsen made a great start and barged his way past Mirko Bortolotti for fourth. Through the heat hazes they came to complete lap one, the flat-six whine of Preining’s Porsche ahead of the V10 shriek of Schmid’s Lamborghini, then the chasing Porsches of Heinemann and Olsen, the second Manthey 911 having barged its way past Bortolotti at the start.
Battles sparked into life further down the order. Fighting over ninth, Schubert’s Rene Rast and Mann-Filter’s Maro Engel rubbed shoulders at T3, the BMW shouldering the Mercedes onto the dirt on corner exit. Engel’s rear end snapped out violently for a moment, but somehow the German kept the Mann-Filter Merc pointing forward, regaining ninth when Rast was instructed to let his countryman back past. Things got worse for the three-time champion when his right-rear wheel departed the Schubert M4 at speed, sending Rast spinning frenziedly into the gravel and bringing out the safety car.
After a short yellow, the race resumed with Heinemann wasting no time in sailing by Schmid’s Lamborghini at the Hotel turn to take second place. Preining remained as elusive as ever up the road, however, while the newly-demoted Schmid fell into the clutches of Olsen’s Manthey Porsche. SSR’s Bortolotti, Toksport’s Engelhart, and the Mann-Filter Mercs of Owega and Engel completed the leading bunch as the pit-stops began in earnest.
Unlike yesterday, most drivers were keen to get their stops over and done with early. The Manthey crew made up for their pit-lane blunders of Saturday by servicing leader Preining very swiftly, yet when Heinemann came in a lap later, the Toksport mechanics did an even better job to get the German newcomer back out just ahead of the Austrian. On cold tyres, however, Heinemann looked vulnerable as the two Manthey Porsches squared up behind him, Preining supported now by Olsen, who had jumped Schmid’s Lamborghini on his way out of the pits. The Austrian pushed and prodded the leading Toksport 911, and Heinemann was eventually coerced into running wide at the hairpin, beckoning Preining back into the lead. Olsen’s attempts to follow his teammate past Heinemann at the end of the lap were rather less successful, the German holding his own against a pretty rude lunge from the Norwegian.
Unlike the rest of the leading bunch, Christian Engelhart made a later pit-stop, a decision which paid off handsomely when the Toksport driver emerged from the pits in second place, just ahead of teammate Tim Heinemann, after entering the pit-stop sequence in an anonymous sixth. However, all was not well for the German veteran; a tyre issue was slowing the white Toksport 911 considerably, allowing Preining to break clear pu front while teammate Heinemann, Olsen, Schmid, Bortolotti and Feller sat in a frustrated queue behind. With 19 minutes left on the clock, Kelvin van der Linde parked his Abt Audi with a drivetrain failure, bringing out a second safety car of the afternoon.
After a few laps of caution, Preining aced the restart to gallop clear from Engelhart and the rest, but bad news was awaiting the race leader as the stewards were investigating his Manthey crew for a pit-stop infringement. During Preining’s mid-race pit-stop, one of his tyres had not been secured in the arms of the mechanics; a small discretion perhaps, but one with big consequences. Nine minutes from the end, the race leader was handed a long-lap penalty. Manthey duly got on the radio to their man and instructed him to go flat-out, and Preining didn’t disappoint, hustling the grello Porsche into corners and kicking up dust on corner exit.
Try as he might though, the long-lap penalty allowed Engelhart and Heinemann to slip past before the Austrian got back up to speed in third, directly ahead of Manthey teammate Olsen. That was how they finished, Christian Engelhart continuing the trend of first-time winners by claiming a surprise maiden DTM victory from seventh on the grid despite nursing a tyre issue. It was a doubly good day for Toksport WRT as teammate Heinemann finished a close second and took over the championship lead, while a frustrated Preining led a Manthey 3–4 ahead of Olsen to seal a Stuttgart sweep of the top four positions.
A very good race from Clemens Schmid handed Grasser a strong fifth, the German staying narrowly ahead of Mirko Bortolotti from start to finish. Ricardo Feller enjoyed a hectic race battling his way from 13th on the grid to seventh, while Jusuf Owega quietly impressed by leading the Mercedes-AMG charge in eighth place, running just ahead of veteran teammate Maro Engel until the German’s ‘yellow mamba’ Merc was hit with a long-lap penalty for a pit-stop infringement, allowing Team Bernhard’s Laurin Heinrich and Winward’s Lucas Auer to round out the top ten. Reigning champion Sheldon van der Linde battled his way to 11th, picking up valuable points after his Saturday DNF.
Of the rest, special mention had to go to Luca Stolz. Retiring just eight minutes into the first race, the German led race 2 by staying out until the last moment during the pit-stop cycle. When the Haupt Mercedes came in for its stop though, it turned around and parked in the garage for the second race in succession. Curiously enough, Mick Wishofer and Mattia Drudi also suffered double-retirements at Oschersleben.
RACE 2 RESULT
- C. Engelhart — Toksport WRT Porsche 911 GT3 R (41 laps)
- T. Heinemann — Toksport WRT Porsche 911 GT3 R (+0.8)
- T. Preining — Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3 R (+2.1)
- D. Olsen — Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3 R (+3.7)
- C. Schmid — Grasser Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 (+4.5)
- M. Bortolotti — SSR Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 (+7.2)
- R. Feller — Abt Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II (+7.9)
- J. Owega — Mann-Filter Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo (+8.5)
- L. Heinrich — Team75 Porsche 911 GT3 R (+8.8)
- L. Auer — Winward Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo (+12.5)
