WINWARD masters the Eifel rain
Maro Engel and Lucas Auer steer their Mercedes-AMG GT3 to third and fourth in the DTM Saturday race at the Nürburgring.
An impressive team performance in difficult conditions earned the Mercedes-AMG Team WINWARD its fourth podium as the second half of the 2024 DTM season got under way. In the ninth race of the year on the 3.6-kilometre short layout of the Nürburgring, Maro Engel steered his Mercedes-AMG GT3, designed in the colours of “130 Years of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport” and RAVENOL, to third place in pouring rain. With that, the 38-year-old Monaco resident moved up to third in the overall standings. Team-mate Lucas Auer (29, Kufstein) completed a strong result for the German-Texan squad with fourth in the sister car entered by Mercedes-AMG Team MANN-FILTER.
In morning qualifying the WINWARD drivers had already made their ambitions for a top result clear with grid positions 3 (Auer) and 4 (Engel). After the start, which took place behind the safety car because of rain that had set in shortly before, the two WWR cars swapped positions, which they would hold until the chequered flag after an hour of racing.
The strong team result was completed by the Altendiez pit crew, who changed all four wheels on Engel’s Mercedes-AMG GT3 in 6.4 seconds at the mandatory pit stop between the 20th and 40th minute, once again scoring full points in the DTM Pitstop Challenge. The WWR crew leads this official pit stop ranking of all DTM teams after nine of 16 races.
“It was a good day,” summed up Maro Engel. “I gave everything from the start and tried to put pressure on the rivals ahead of me, even though in the end there was no chance to attack. Our guys delivered a sensational pit stop once again, thank you very much for that! We’re looking forward to tomorrow, when we want to attack fully again.”
Luggi Auer was not entirely satisfied with fourth: “My race was so-so. We need to analyse the first stint, I was much too slow there. After the tyre change things went better, especially towards the end of the race I was able to pick up the pace. In the end it’s a solid result, but we still have a bit of work to do to find more speed in these conditions.”
WWR team principal Christian Hohenadel had nothing but praise for his team: “In these difficult conditions we delivered a faultless performance overall. Besides the great performance of our two drivers, I’m particularly pleased with the fantastic work of our pit crew. Luggi’s stop was really good, Maro’s was top class. Since yesterday we’ve been at the front with both cars in every session. That makes me confident for tomorrow.”
The Sunday race at the Nürburgring starts at 1.30 pm. ProSieben, JOYN and ran.de will broadcast the action from the traditional circuit in the Eifel live and in full as always.