DTM Assen – Wittmann And Auer Take The Wins – Lawson Takes Championship Lead
Wittmann Takes Win In Saturday Race
Marco Wittmann scored his second win of the season while Liam Lawson replaced Kelvin van der Linde in the lead of the drivers’ standings following his third-place finish in Saturday’s race at Assen.
Wittmann came out on top with his Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW in spite of having incurred a five-second time penalty for contact with Liam Lawson.
Guest driver Mirko Bortolotti showed a spirited drive against Lawson and finished second ahead of the New Zealander in his T3 Motorsport Lamborghini.
With Maximilian Götz with his HRT Mercedes-AMG and Christian Klien with the JP Motorsport McLaren in fourth and fifth place, five different brands were represented in the first five places for the first time in the 2021 DTM.
Moreover, Sophia Flörsch with the ABT Audi and Esmee Hawkey with her T3 Lamborghini secured their first DTM championship points.
Having come to Assen as the leader in the drivers’ standings, Kelvin van der Linde was leading the field until the penultimate lap, but then had to come into the pits for his mandatory tyre change and dropped back to twelfth.
As a result, the South African lost his points’ lead to Lawson and after race one was in joint second place together with Wittmann.
Lucas Auer Wins On Sunday
Austrian Lucas Auer scored his first win of the season with the WINWARD Mercedes at Assen in The Netherlands on Sunday.
Liam Lawson though is now the DTM points’ leader. The 19 year old New Zealander, who had taken over the points’ lead from Kelvin van der Linde with a third-place finish in his Red Bull Ferrari on Saturday, extended his lead in the drivers’ standings to ten points (he has 175) by finishing second from Saturday race winner and new closes Championship rival Marco Wittmann with the Walkenhorst BMW (165 points).
Kelvin van der Linde (160) and Maximilian Götz (155) are also among the favourites in the battle for the DTM title.
In contrast to Saturday, when several collisions happened at the start, the 21 drivers made a perfect start and staged a clean opening lap on Sunday.
Auer immediately pulled a slight gap from his rivals while Wittmann had to defend his position against the Ferrari duo.
On the fifth lap, a large part of the field came into the pits for an early mandatory tyre change, including Auer as the race leader. Almost all the others came in for fresh Michelin tyres in the following two laps.
As on Saturday, ABT Sportsline opted for a late stop for Kelvin van der Linde and Mike Rockenfeller. The South African came in after lap 20 and initially rejoined the race in sixth place. Rockenfeller only came in for fresh tyres after lap 33, clearing the way for Auer and the others.
Daniel Juncadella lost a potential podium slot on the very last lap as his GruppeM Racing Mercedes ground to a halt with one lap remaining.
DTM Race 2 Result Assern 2021 – Plus Championship Standings
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