The new bull from Italy stormed surprisingly to his first victory in the DTM: Abt-Lamborghini driver Marco Mapelli wins the first race at the Lausitzring. The 38-year-old Italian, who had started the race from 16th on the grid, completed his mandatory pit stop during a full-course yellow phase and thus benefited from an enormous time advantage.
“Yes, at the start we took a gamble, just like others did, and I trusted the team,” Mapelli told ProSieben. Despite a rain shower before the start, Abt went into the race on slick tires. “But I wasn’t really sure, especially on the first lap. But sometimes you just have to listen to people who have already won much more.”
“That worked out well,” says the Italian, who only benefited from the pit stop during the yellow phase. “Of course we were lucky with the full-course yellow, that was a game changer. I think it’s a nice reward for everyone working on this project. I’m happy.”
Ben Dörr repeats his podium from Zandvoort
Ben Dörr (Dörr-McLaren) and Manthey-Porsche driver Ricardo Feller also had the same luck, as they too came into the pits at the perfect time and completed the podium on Saturday. Polesitter Nicki Thiim (Comtoyou-Aston-Martin) was unlucky: despite a bold tire gamble that had actually already paid off, the Dane only finished fourth.
“To be honest, I didn’t expect that,” second-placed Dörr told ProSieben. “I rather assumed we would have poor chances here. But strategy and weather played into our hands today, just like for the other two on the podium.”
“I think we did everything right today and can be very satisfied with the result,” the McLaren driver praises his team. “Of course we started on slicks and gambled a little with that, because we had repeatedly had problems in the rain in the past.”
Marco Wittmann (Schubert-BMW) finishes fifth, followed by Maximilian Paul (Grasser-Lamborghini) and Thierry Vermeulen in the Emil Frey Ferrari. Lucas Auer (Landgraf-Mercedes) takes eighth position, while Jules Gounon (Winward-Mercedes) and Matteo Cairoli (Emil Frey Ferrari) complete the top 10.
Rain shower causes tire gamble at the start
Even before the race, the teams and drivers faced a difficult tire decision: around 15 minutes before the start, a heavy rain shower fell, flooding the track within a very short time and causing a five-minute delay.
Due to the high asphalt temperatures, the strong wind, and the fact that apparently no further rain was expected, some teams anticipated the track would dry quickly. Several drivers therefore opted for slicks, including even polesitter Thiim.
After two formation laps, the start was given in the familiar two-by-two formation. Lucas Auer immediately stormed into the lead on rain tires, followed by his two AMG brand teammates Jules Gounon and Maro Engel. The fourth AMG driver Tom Kalender (Landgraf-Mercedes) was spun around in the midfield.
Bastian Buus also didn’t get far: the Land-Porsche driver spun into the gravel trap in turn 7 and got stuck there, triggering the first and only safety car phase. That especially played into the hands of the slick-tire drivers, who thus did not lose even more ground. However, Thiim had already dropped back to 13th at that point.
Slick tires become the decisive advantage
When the safety car came in again a few laps later, the track was significantly drier, but the drivers on slicks were still at a disadvantage. Auer defended his lead against Gounon, while Engel behind them had to give way to Cairoli and Arjun Maini (HRT-Ford).
Just the second lap after the restart brought the turning point: the lap times of the cars on slick tires now became significantly faster. At that point Thiim was the best-placed driver on treadless tires, lapping around two seconds faster than the leaders and beginning to pass the first rivals on rain tires.
Even before the pit stop window opened, the Dane had already moved past Auer into the lead. It was accordingly hardly surprising that all the drivers on rain tires came into the pits at the first opportunity to switch to slicks.
One lap later, however, Thiim, Vermeulen and Paul also completed their mandatory pit stop, while Timo Glock had to park his Dörr-McLaren on the track due to a technical defect. This in turn led to a full-course yellow phase, which became the race-deciding moment.
Mapelli, Dörr and Feller lucky with the pit stop
Although it is not permitted to complete the mandatory stop during a full-course yellow phase, Marco Mapelli, Ben Dörr and Ricardo Feller had already crossed the line at the pit entry when the yellow phase was called. Therefore, their pit visit was counted as the mandatory stop.
After the pit stop window closed, a completely different picture emerged at the front: Mapelli was suddenly leading in the Abt Lamborghini, closely followed by Dörr and Feller. The trio was more than 20 seconds ahead of Thiim, who despite his charge could not turn his successful tire gamble at the start into a victory.
Mapelli’s debut success was no longer in danger in the closing stages. The Italian even extended his lead over Dörr further in the final laps and ultimately crossed the finish line as a commanding winner.
Maro Engel, who had previously led the overall DTM standings, on the other hand experienced a difficult race. After the full-course yellow, the Winward-Mercedes driver slid off the track and plowed through the gravel trap, which dropped him far back. In the end, Engel finished only in 15th place and collects just one point for that.
The AMG driver engaged in a hard duel against Manthey-Porsche driver Thomas Preining in the closing stages. After several position changes, contacts and angry radio messages, Preining ultimately came out on top. Engel must surrender his overall lead to brand teammate Auer.
There is hardly any time for the drivers to let tempers cool down again: the sixth race of the 2026 DTM season is already scheduled for Sunday. After the morning qualifying session (from 9 a.m.), the start of the next heat battle at the Lausitzring follows at 1:30 p.m.
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
– The Motorsport.com Team
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: motorsport.com
