Ayhancan Guven and Rene Rast took victories in DTM weekend in Circuit Zandvoort, which saw Race 1 being affected by rain.
Race 1:
Conditions were tough at the start of the race: the rain may have stopped, but race five of the season began on a wet track. Güven immediately climbed from fifth to third place on lap one in his Porsche 911 GT3 R – behind pole-sitter Jordan Pepper (ZA) and Luca Engstler (Kempten/both TGI Team Lamborghini by GRT) in a Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2.
As the race progressed, the asphalt started to dry out. Güven was one of the first to come in for his mandatory pit stops, during which he switched to slicks. Shortly thereafter, the pit lane became a scene of great hectic, as many drivers came in for new tyres at the same time. Pepper, who had opened a big lead at the front of the race by this point, lost over 13 seconds in the chaos, and then dropped back through the field over the remainder of the race.
In contrast, Thiim, benefitted from a late tyre change, rejoining the race at the Formula 1 circuit near Amsterdam as the new leader. However, whilst still on cold tyres he was unable to defend his lead against the onrushing Güven. Shortly before the end of the race, the safety car was called upon after an incident involving BMW driver René Rast (Bregenz/Schubert Motorsport). Güven defended his lead at the restart and went on to take the chequered flag ahead of the three Lamborghini of Thiim, Paul and Engstler. Paul claimed the first DTM podium for his family team Paul Motorsport.
Lucas Auer (A/Mercedes-AMG Team Landgraf) used his experience to climb into fifth place in the Mercedes-AMG, and consequently held onto his lead at the top of the table. Local favourite Morris Schuring (NL) was sixth in front of his home crowd in the 911 run by the Manthey Junior Team.
Marco Wittmann (Fürth/Schubert Motorsport) crossed the finish line just 0.017 seconds later as the best-placed BMW driver, having produced an impressive fightback and gained 13 positions. Pole-sitter Pepper had to settle for eighth place, his team-mate Mirko Bortolotti (I/Abt Sportsline) was ninth. Maro Engel (Monaco/Mercedes-AMG Team Winward Racing) dropped back from second to tenth place after a tough race in his Mercedes-AMG GT3.
Result: https://dtm.com/en/results?season=2025
Race 2:
Shortly after the start, spectators at the circuit in the Dutch dunes on Sunday afternoon were already watching two BMW drivers leading the rest of the field. Pole-sitter Rast successfully held onto his lead at the start, while Wittmann, starting from third, immediately overtook Jack Aitken (GB/Emil Frey Racing) in the Ferrari 296 GT3 to move into second place. Aitken was followed in fourth by Preining. Mercedes-AMG driver Maro Engel (Monaco/Mercedes-AMG Team Winward Racing) raced through from twelfth to fifth place.
After the first pit stop, Preining climbed into third place: the Austrian had come in to switch to fresh Pirelli slicks one lap before Aitken and was soon able to use his warm tyres to overtake the Brit. The top five once again showed no signs of weakness in the second tyre change, all holding onto their positions. Wittmann then gave it everything in his 200th DTM race, but 0.3 seconds was ultimately as close as he could get to Rast at the head of the field. The three-time champion took the chequered flag ahead of Wittmann after 35 laps of racing. In doing so, he claimed his 29th DTM victory and climbed into second place in the table after six races. Preining held onto third place ahead of the charging Aitken, while Engel rounded out the top five after a strong display.
The best-placed Lamborghini driver was Luca Engstler (Kempten/TGI Team Lamborghini by GRT) in sixth. Mercedes-AMG works driver Lucas Auer (A/Mercedes-AMG Team Landgraf) finished seventh to extend his championship lead by three points. Fellow Mercedes-AMG driver Jules Gounon (F) from Mercedes-AMG Team Mann-Filter ended the sixth race of the DTM season in eighth place. Mirko Bortolotti (I/Abt Sportsline) made up six positions and came home ninth in the Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2. Arjun Maini (HRT Ford Performance) from India produced a similar fightback, battling through from 16th to finish tenth in the Ford Mustang GT3.
Result: https://dtm.com/en/results?season=2025
[The story is as per press release]
