WINWARD Racing narrowly misses victory
Max Götz celebrates his first podium of the 2022 DTM season in the Saturday race at Spa-Francorchamps. Bad luck for Auer and Schumacher.
Mercedes-AMG Team WINWARD Racing narrowly missed victory in the Saturday race of the sixth 2022 DTM meeting at Spa-Francorchamps, but was delighted with Maximilian Götz’s (34, Uffenheim) first podium of the year. The defending champion crossed the line second in the Mercedes-AMG GT3 in BWT colours, just 0.8 seconds behind the winner. His two team-mates, on the other hand, came away empty-handed despite strong performances. Lucas Auer (27, Kufstein) had to park his Knaus car while running second after a puncture. David Schumacher (20, Salzburg) had the first points of his DTM career in sight while running eighth in the Ravenol car, but dropped out of the top 10 in the final laps.
In morning qualifying on a wet track, the WWR trio had made a very strong impression. Auer, Götz and Schumacher qualified third, fourth and seventh, although a grid penalty following a verdict at the last race at the Nürburgring dropped Schumacher to eleventh.
At the start on a now dry track, the three WINWARD cars got away very well. Auer and Götz settled into second and third, where they remained after the mandatory tyre changes. Lucas Auer had just started attacking the leading Porsche again when he suffered a front-left puncture on lap 16. The Tyrolean nursed his Mercedes-AMG GT3 back to the pits but had to retire there.
“The puncture came without warning at the exit of Eau Rouge, it was a really dangerous situation. I only just managed to catch the car. It’s annoying, of course – we had the podium in sight and could have taken a big step in the championship,” said the nephew of Formula 1 legend Gerhard Berger, who dropped from third to fifth in the standings.
Team-mate Maximilian Götz then really turned up the pace and put the leader under pressure with the fastest race lap. In the end the Franconian had to settle for second but was still delighted with the podium: “It was a strong first day, and this morning in qualifying there would have been even more in it if yellow flags hadn’t spoiled things for us. The start went great, I got through the first lap unscathed. We wanted to do a long first stint from the outset because we weren’t sure if and when rain would come. The pace was very good on used tyres too, and after Luggi’s bad luck I was able to put pressure on the leading Porsche. Who knows, one or two more laps and I might have got him. But I’m super happy with the result anyway. We’ve found our rhythm, the consistency is back. You should never write off a champion!” Götz jumped to ninth in the interim standings.
David Schumacher was in less of a good mood, having been well on his way to scoring the first points of his young DTM career. Running eighth thanks to some strong moves on the 7.004-kilometre Ardennes rollercoaster and the fastest mandatory tyre change of the entire field at 6.9 seconds, the Austrian resident was pushed back three places in the last two laps and finished eleventh. “A shame – after the good qualifying we had high hopes for the race too. Unfortunately the BMWs were too strong at the end, so we dropped out of the points,” the DTM rookie lamented.
WWR team principal Christian Hohenadel commented on the race with mixed feelings: “I’m very happy for Max, who continued his strong upward trend here – his first podium this year was long overdue. I feel terribly sorry for Luggi. We have to analyse how the puncture on his car came about. And David absolutely deserved his first points given his strong performance. At least we managed the fastest pit stop of the entire race on his car. Particularly positive is that we were competitive with all three cars. And we plan to be again tomorrow.”
The twelfth race of the 2022 DTM season also starts at 1.30 pm on Sunday. ProSieben broadcasts live from 1 pm, and on tv.dtm.com racing fans can find all the information about cars and drivers.