Winward Mercedes driver Maro Engel does his job and wins the final race of the 2026 DTM season, but the title goes to Thomas Preining in the Manthey Porsche. The Austrian finishes third and, after 2023, crowns himself DTM champion for the second time in his career.
“It was a horror day today, especially with the late race, having to wait three hours longer,” Preining says on ProSieben. “It’s not exactly pleasant when you can basically only lose.” The goal had been “to drive a clean race, without contact, and we managed that. I’m really proud of my team.”
Engel celebrates the win, but not the title. “I put everything into this weekend and I think we can be proud of what we’ve done,” the AMG driver says on ProSieben. “The joy outweighs everything. It was a fantastic race. Thanks to my guys, thanks to Mercedes-AMG.”
Maro Engel wins, but only finishes runner-up
Engel is runner-up in the 2026 season. “As our founder of Mercedes-AMG once said, you don’t have to become champion every year with Mercedes-AMG, but you should always be in a position to fight for the championship with it,” he adds. “We did that again this year and we will keep fighting.”
Manthey Porsche driver Ricardo Feller finishes second after being allowed through by Preining on the final lap. “I had cramp in my foot,” the champion says with a smile. Land Porsche driver Bastian Buus, who had started the race from pole, finishes fourth. Ben Dorr (Dorr McLaren) takes fifth place.
Matteo Cairoli (Emil Frey Ferrari) finishes sixth, followed by Marco Wittmann. The Schubert BMW driver had also gone into the finale with title chances, but ultimately played no role. “You have the ambition, we fought until the very end and in the end we didn’t have the chances to make anything happen there,” he says on ProSieben.
“Nevertheless, you really have to congratulate Thomas, Manthey and Porsche, who really did an outstanding job, were extremely strong, made no mistakes and are deserved champions accordingly,” says Wittmann. “And we simply weren’t in a position to do anything against them.”
Arjun Maini (HRT Ford) crosses the finish line eighth, while Marco Mapelli in the Abt Lamborghini and Mirko Bortolotti (Grasser Lamborghini) complete the top 10.
Thomas Preining makes perfect race start
Preining pursuer Engel was under pressure in the finale, because only a win would have given the AMG driver any chance of taking the title in the final sprint. Starting third, the German therefore worked his way up to second over the course of the opening lap, while polesitter Buus initially took the lead.
Preining made a good start and immediately gained several places from seventh on the grid. After just a few corners he was already in third place, closely followed by Manthey team-mate Feller. The third title contender, Wittmann, also made up ground in the midfield and was quickly in the top 7, before making no further progress.
Engel could no longer count on support at the front as the race went on, because team-mate Jules Gounon had to park his Winward Mercedes at the end of the opening lap after a collision with Thierry Vermeulen (Emil Frey Ferrari). That left Engel as the only AMG driver in the leading group.
Maro Engel snatches the lead from Buus
Shortly before the first pit stop, the fight for the lead intensified, as Engel had closed the gap to leader Buus. The Land Porsche driver defended his position by all means, especially at the hairpin. That also allowed Preining and Feller to close in, creating a four-car pack at the front.
Just like the previous day, when the AMG driver had forced his way past Wittmann with a hard attack, Engel also launched a risky overtaking move in the final race of the year. He barged past the Land Porsche with contact and took the lead.
Unlike the previous day, the move on Buus was hard but not unfair, because the Dane did not have to leave the track. Nevertheless, the Land Porsche dropped back to third behind Preining as a result of the attack, before Buus headed in for his first mandatory pit stop. Preining then set off in pursuit of Engel.
The Manthey driver stopped a little later, before his title rival, who, however, headed into the pits just one lap later. Unlike the previous day, the Winward squad’s stop was perfect this time. The AMG driver was therefore able to defend his lead despite Preining’s undercut.
Manthey Porsche driver Preining takes no risks
The Austrian had the advantage in the finale that he was being followed by Manthey team-mate Feller as well as fellow Porsche driver Buus, and therefore at least did not have to fear an attack from behind. He basically only had to bring his position home over the distance.
That was not changed by Engel being able to extend his lead to four seconds before the second stop. Light rain even began during the second pit-stop window, but it was not enough to add extra tension or even prompt a switch to wet tyres.
Preining again headed into the pits for his second tyre change one lap before his title rival. But the second stop also brought no changes: Engel held his lead ahead of the Manthey Porsche driver, who understandably took no risks on cold tyres.
In the closing stages, the Austrian received further cover from team-mate Feller, who was actually faster but did not want to launch an attack. On the final lap, Preining then let the Swiss driver through without a fight. AMG driver Maro Engel had done his duty with his victory, but in the end still missed out on his first DTM title.
Manthey also wins the teams’ championship this year ahead of Winward and Schubert. Only in the manufacturers’ standings can Mercedes-AMG celebrate the title. Porsche takes second place in that classification, followed by BMW and Ferrari.
The DTM now heads into the winter break. The 2027 season opener takes place from April 23 to 25, 2027 at the Red-Bull-Ring in Austria.
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