Preining completes stunning wet win from seventh on the grid to grab his second DTM victory of the season

The Küs Team Bernhard driver, Thomas Preining, completed a masterful wet weather drive to charge through the field to win his home race at the Red Bull Ring in race two of the DTM. Whilst championship leader, Sheldon Van der Linde was unable to recover from a nine-place grid penalty to finish outside the points.

A thrilling qualifying session that unleashed treacherous conditions on the drivers, led to a somewhat mixed-up grid for race two at the Red Bull Ring. Maro Engel came away with pole position for the first time in his DTM career, followed by race one winner Nick Cassidy and Felipe Fraga. Philipp Eng and Maximilian Götz rounded out the top five.

It was uneventful first few corners for the drivers at the front of the grid. But for Sheldon Van der Linde, a disappointing weekend got even worse, as he ran wide into turn three, as soon as his Schubert Motorsport car touched the slippery asphalt outside the track, he was launched into a spin. Dropping him all the way down to the back of the field.

Somebody who was having a much better weekend at his home race was the Austrian Thomas Preining. From the early periods of the race, it was the Preining show. First, he was past Arjun Maini, then Maximilian Götz, before pulling off the move of the day on Philipp Eng. The two were wheel-to-wheel heading into the long turn seven corner, with Preining going all the way around the outside of Eng before turn eight. It truly was a move that showed Preining’s superior confidence compared to everyone else on track at that time.

Preining excels in treacherous wet conditions. Photo: DTM

With the track drying slowly, the field was split on their tyre strategies. Luca Stolz was the first to switch to new wet tyres, whilst other drivers were waiting for the right time to go straight to slick tyres.

Preining, who was still on wet tyres, was on a charge. Making up the five-second gap between himself and Maro Engel in the lead, in under two laps. Before passing the German into the penultimate corner. Engel was struggling with overheating tyres, which saw a lot of drivers weave to the far right of the pit straight to try and cool their tyres.

The race leader did eventually pit for new wet tyres, just coming out in front of leading driver Luca Stolz. Whereas Engel made the gamble to go straight to slick tyres, just as Lucas Auer did before him. And the gamble paid off, as Engel moved his way back up into third by the checkered flag.

Preining was left to waltz home to his second win of the season in very impressive style. Finishing nearly five seconds ahead of Luca Stolz in one of the Mercedes AMG Team HRT cars. Putting him in contention for a surprise title bid, as the Austrian now only sits 14 points behind championship leader Sheldon Van der Linde, who did not score in race two following a grid penalty for repeatedly exceeding track limits.

The DTM series heads to the Hockheimring in two weeks’ time for the season finale. With 58 points on offer in the last two races, and just 16 points covering the two five of: Sheldon Van der Linde, Lucas Auer, René Rast, Thomas Preining, and Mirko Bortolotti. It is anyone’s guess whom the title will go to.