Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

USA

Lausitzring DTM: Gotz wins after heartbreak for van der Linde

Maximilian Gotz made it two wins for Mercedes in the second round of the 2021 DTM season at the Lausitzring after Audi driver Kelvin van der Linde dropped out of the lead with technical problems.

Watch: Round 2: Lausitzring - Race 2 Highlights

Abt Sportsline’s van der Linde was on course to become the first repeat winner of the year having taken over the lead during the mandatory round of pitstops. But a sudden stoppage cost him the lead, promoting HRT Mercedes of Gotz to the top spot.

At the start of the race, front row starter Liam Lawson boldly hung around the outside of polesitter Philip Ellis into the first braking zone at Turn 2, gaining the inside line - and the lead - into the following right-hander.

The Red Bull driver controlled proceedings from there on until the pitstop cycle in the AF Corse Ferrari, as van der Linde first cleared Gotz - who ran wide through the gravel at Turn 6 - and then passed Ellis to move up to second.

Van der Linde was the first of the duo to stop for fresh tyres on lap 6, with Lawson following him into the pitlane two laps later.

While Lawson’s pitstop itself was rapid, he was slow to roll out of his pit box, losing crucial time to his rivals. That meant when he exited the pitlane he came out behind the Audi of van der Linde, with Gotz also taking advantage of his cold tyres to move up to a net second.

With just 12 minutes to run, van der Linde’s car mysteriously shut down on the start/finish straight while in the lead of the race, forcing him to hurriedly perform a full restart.

The South African was able to kickstart the engine before his car came to a halt, but he dropped to third behind Gotz and Lawson in the process.

Van der Linde tried hard to recover lost ground, indulging in a close battle with Lawson, but ultimately had to settle for third position, as GT3 ace Gotz clinched his first victory in the DTM ahead of Lawson.

Ellis, handicapped by 25kg of success ballast following his Saturday win, was able to fend off the charging Rowe Racing BMW of Sheldon van der Linde to finish fourth, with Marco Wittmann sixth in the sole Walkenhorst BMW.

GruppeM Mercedes’s Daniel Juncadella was classified seventh ahead of 2013 champion Mike Rockenfeller, (Abt Audi) and Lucas Auer (Winward Mercedes).

A late pitstop propelled Nico Muller from 15th on the grid to 10th at the flag after the Team Rosberg Audi driver cleared the AF Corse-run Ferrari of Red Bull Formula 1 reserve Alex Albon into Turn 6 with three laps to run in the race.

With the first two rounds complete, Kelvin van der Linde leads the championship by four points from Lawson, with Ellis a further 17 points adrift in third.

Race results:

Cla # Driver Car Gap
1 4 Germany Maximilian Götz
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo
2 30 New Zealand Liam Lawson
Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 4.675
3 3 South Africa Kelvin van der Linde
Audi R8 LMS Evo 5.271
4 57 United Kingdom Philip Ellis
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 6.706
5 31 South Africa Sheldon Van Der Linde
BMW M6 GT3 7.184
6 11 Germany Marco Wittmann
BMW M6 GT3 7.537
7 8 Spain Daniel Juncadella
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 8.398
8 9 Germany Mike Rockenfeller
Audi R8 LMS Evo 8.672
9 22 Austria Lucas Auer
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 9.748
10 51 Switzerland Nico Müller
Audi R8 LMS Evo 10.447
11 23 Thailand Alex Albon
Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 11.188
12 36 India Arjun Maini
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 12.345
13 16 Germany Timo Glock
BMW M6 GT3 15.816
14 5 France Vincent Abril
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 17.676
15 99 Germany Sophia Flörsch
Audi R8 LMS Evo 33.123
16 26 United Kingdom Esmee Hawkey
Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 33.328
17 12 United States Dev Gore
Audi R8 LMS Evo 57.011
18 18 Germany Maximilian Buhk
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo 1'13.452
19 10 Belgium Esteban Muth
Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 4 Laps

Be part of Motorsport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Lausitzring DTM: Ellis puts Mercedes on pole, Lawson second
Next article Lawson takes blame for slow pitstop, losing DTM race lead

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

USA