As Motorsport.com reports, the opening DTM race at Hockenheim delivered an afternoon of pure, unadulterated chaos that left the championship battle wide open for Sunday. Landgraf-Mercedes driver Lucas Auer mastered the madness to take victory, while championship leader Thomas Preining missed his chance to wrap up the title early after a messy start.
The drama started instantly when pole-sitter Luca Engstler converted his advantage ahead of Auer, but absolute mayhem broke out right behind them. Ricardo Feller (Manthey-Porsche) and Thierry Vermeulen (Emil-Frey-Ferrari) collided in the second corner, ripping the front end off Feller's car and nudging Vermeulen into Preining's Porsche. Feller copped a heavy penalty of three penalty laps, dropping him stone dead last.
Preining's race went from bad to worse on the run to the hairpin when he ran wide onto the grass, tumbling all the way down to 13th overall. While title rival Maro Engel (Winward-Mercedes) capitalised brilliantly to rocket from seventh on the grid to third on the opening lap, the race ground to a halt shortly after. On lap two, Auer launched an attack on Engstler at the hairpin, leading to contact in the fast right-hander before the Mercedes grandstand.
Engstler lost the back end of his Abt-Lamborghini and slammed backwards into the concrete barrier at immense speed. Mercifully, the young driver crawled out and was taken to the medical centre as a precaution, later confirming he was okay. Race control briefly red-flagged the session to inspect the damage before unleashing the pack once more.
Mercedes-AMG soon implemented team orders, with Auer slowing down in front of the grandstand to hand the lead to fellow AMG driver Engel. But the race was far from settled. The mandatory pit stops blew the top order completely apart when a jammed right-rear wheel on Engel's Winward-Mercedes cost him over 16 seconds stationary, dropping him down the order.
That opened the door for Mirko Bortolotti (Grasser-Lamborghini) to secure second place, while Marco Wittmann brought his Schubert-BMW home in third to keep his title hopes alive. Wittmann even vaulted past Engel into second in the overall standings. Engel fought back furiously in the closing stages, forcing his way past Wittmann and pushing him wide, which prompted race control to order a position swap.
Preining salvaged crucial points by fighting back to fifth, leaving the championship fight entirely undecided heading into Sunday's finale. Preining holds 209 points, with Wittmann 20 points back and Engel 22 points adrift as 28 points remain on the table.
