In a thrilling Sunday race at Oschersleben, Ayhancan Guven celebrated his first victory – and the first-ever DTM win by a Turkish driver. The Manthey-Porsche driver triumphed thanks to a perfect strategy that vaulted him to the front after the first of two mandatory pitstops.
"Already in my first year, I was immediately fighting for victories and the championship title," recalled the 27-year-old, who has been competing in the DTM since 2023. "But last year, success simply would not come. That was particularly painful for me because I always knew I had the potential. Yet in motorsport, only results matter.
"There is no need to apologize or make excuses. To be honest, that was very frustrating. But the only solution was to work hard. Thanks to my team, where we have a really good atmosphere and where we drivers receive excellent support, we were able to continuously improve."
Polesitter Jules Gounon secured second place in the Winward-Mercedes, followed by Thomas Preining, who completed a double podium finish for Manthey. New DTM leader Jordan Pepper (Grasser-Lamborghini) narrowly missed out on the top three.
Rene Rast and Marco Wittmann gave the Schubert team reason to celebrate at their home race with fifth and sixth positions. Luca Engstler (Grasser-Lamborghini) finished seventh, while Ben Doerr impressed with a strong eighth-place finish in the Doerr-McLaren.
DTM champion Mirko Bortolotti (Abt-Lamborghini) and Saturday's race winner Lucas Auer (Landgraf-Mercedes) completed the top ten. Land-Audi driver Ricardo Feller had to settle for eleventh overall.
Safety car deployed after Aston Martin crash
Unlike the largely orderly race on Saturday, the start on Sunday was significantly more turbulent. While Gounon converted his pole position into an early lead, followed by Pepper and Güven, intense battles developed in the midfield.
Maro Engel was forced off track by fellow Mercedes driver Lucas Auer early on and was subsequently hit from the rear by Mirko Bortolotti. As a result, smoke briefly emanated from Engel’s Mercedes-AMG GT3.
Afterwards, Engel could no longer keep pace with the leading group and quickly lost touch with the top 10. Auer’s manoeuvre had consequences as well: following the race director’s instruction, he had to let Engel – and thus Bortolotti and Rast too – through, which dropped him back significantly.
An accident involving Nicolas Baert (Comtoyou-Aston Martin) had previously triggered a safety car intervention, when Baert went off the track and crashed into the tyre barriers. The subsequent restart proceeded without further incident, and Auer immediately seized the opportunity to make his first mandatory pitstop.
Engel followed suit one lap later and managed to get back ahead of Mercedes colleague Auer, despite neither stop being smooth.
Pitstops reshuffle the order
At the front of the field, Jordan Pepper came in one lap earlier than leader Gounon, but the Mercedes pitcrew performed to perfection, allowing the Frenchman to defend his position against the Grasser-Lamborghini.
Nevertheless, Gounon failed to retain the lead, with Guven and Rast making the overcut strategy work.
Back on track, Rast's misfortune continued. On cold tyres, he was unable to fend off charging Thomas Preining, who was on fresher rubber. The Manthey driver soon overtook Pepper as well and started chasing Gounon.
Although Preining significantly increased the pressure on Gounon and even briefly pulled alongside him after slight contact, he ultimately was unable to make a move stick. Gounon successfully defended second place until the finish line.
"It’s a great result, I’m super happy," Preining told ProSieben. "It was a difficult qualifying session on our side of the garage, we couldn’t put together a really good lap. Therefore, finishing third is damage limitation – and I think it’s a fantastic day."
Timo Glock forced to retire
For DTM returnee Timo Glock, the weekend proved disappointing. Driving for Doerr-McLaren, he remained stuck at the back of the field from the beginning and had to retire halfway through the race due to technical issues. Several collisions, particularly with Tom Kalender (Landgraf-Mercedes), had severely damaged his car.
"For us, finishing the race was not an option because the car was simply undriveable," Glock told with ProSieben. "You are fighting with blunt weapons to such an extent that it makes no sense to continue."
In addition to Glock, Nicki Thiim also had to retire his Abt-Lamborghini after a tyre failure made it impossible to continue.
Jordan Pepper now leads the overall DTM standings. "These were the first two of 16 races. The championship will be long this year," the South African warned. "But it was a good weekend."
At the next round at the Lausitzring (24-25 May), the Grasser-Lamborghini driver will hunted by his peers.
