WINWARD Racing in the title race
Sixth podium of the season for Maro Engel in the DTM Saturday race at the Sachsenring. Team-mate Lucas Auer’s run of bad luck continues.
The 2024 DTM title fight is heating up, and the Mercedes-AMG Team WINWARD is still right in the mix. With his sixth podium of the season, the fourth in a row, Maro Engel cut his deficit to the leader to ten points in the Saturday race at the Sachsenring, keeping all options open with five races to go. Starting fifth, the 39-year-old Monaco resident steered his Mercedes-AMG GT3 in the “130 Years of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport” and RAVENOL design to third place. Team-mate Lucas Auer once again had a lot of bad luck. After a turbulent race day, the 29-year-old Austrian still collected a few points in 12th in the “Mamba” entered by Mercedes-AMG Team MANN-FILTER.
Right after the start on the 3.6-kilometre rollercoaster track near Hohenstein-Ernstthal, Engel moved up to fourth and shortly afterwards also overtook fellow Mercedes driver Luca Stolz. After the mandatory pit stop, in which the rules require all four wheels to be changed between the 20th and 40th minute, Engel closed up to the new championship leader Mirko Bortolotti but could not find a way past before the finish.
“It was a super race, many thanks to the team, the car was mega,” beamed the Munich native at the finish. “The start went great, and after that we had strong long-run pace. More than third wasn’t possible today, so we’re absolutely happy with a fourth podium in a row. I hope we can continue this pleasing run tomorrow.”
Team-mate Lucas Auer, meanwhile, can’t shake off his bad luck. Only eleventh after a less than ideal qualifying, the driver from Kufstein got squeezed in the pack after the start of his 150th DTM race and dropped back to 18th. Initially stuck in the midfield, “Luggi” really got going after another very fast pit stop by the WWR crew, lapped at the pace of the front-runners and worked his way up to 12th by the finish.
“After free practice went very well, we lost the thread a bit for qualifying,” admitted Auer. “At the start I got squeezed and lost a lot of places. Thanks to a good strategy and very decent pace after the pit stop we made up some positions. But in general it was a day to forget, which we now need to work through to come back strong tomorrow.”
WWR team principal Christian Hohenadel was pleased “about the strong run of podiums that keeps Maro fully in the title fight. Maybe more would have been possible in qualifying, and every grid position is worth its weight in gold in the DTM. But speed-wise we’re at the front here, which makes me optimistic for tomorrow’s race. That also applies to Luggi, who showed good pace in the second stint and made up several positions as a result, not least thanks to a great pit stop. We will do everything we can to be at the front in qualifying tomorrow morning, then anything is possible.”
The Sunday race at the Sachsenring starts again at 1.30 pm. ProSieben, JOYN and ran.de will broadcast the DTM action live and in full as always.