- Four Mercedes-AMG GT3s in point-scoring positions in turbulent Saturday race
- Successful recovery drives by Mercedes-AMG drivers in both races
- ADAC GT Masters: Salman Owega and Elias Seppänen defend points’ lead
The Mercedes-AMG Customer Racing Teams have racked up further valuable championship points in the 13th and 14th race of the season at the Red Bull Ring. By virtue of the right strategy calls in the rainy Saturday race, four Mercedes-AMG Drivers still managed to convert their starting grid positions, some of them with not too good perspectives, into point-scoring results. Performance Driver Maro Engel (GER) of Mercedes-AMG Team MANN-FILTER ended up fifth in the sprint race at the high-speed track in Spielberg in Austria. On Sunday, Arjun Maini (IND), Lucas Auer (AUT) and Maro Engel went on to add three further top 15 results.
Race 1: Four Mercedes-AMG GT3s end up in the points in rainy Saturday race
Changeable and challenging conditions made their mark on proceedings on the Saturday. In the 20-minute qualifying session, the drying track already made the right tyre choice a more difficult affair. A major part of the field eventually opted for treaded rain tyres. Among them was the fastest Mercedes-AMG driver, Maro Engel with the #48 Mercedes-AMG, who qualified in sixth position with a time of 1m 36.985s. Sachsenring race winner Luca Stolz (GER), fifth in the championship, qualified the #4 car in 14th place of the grid. Mercedes-AMG Team WIWARD, meanwhile, was less fortunate in the tyre gamble. With slick tyres, Lucas Auer only ended up in 27th position while teammate David Schumacher (GER) started the race from the pit lane following a crash in the morning.
Similarly mixed conditions awaited the 28 DTM drivers in the one-hour race in the afternoon. Once again, most teams opted for rain tyres while Mercedes-AMG Team WINWARD once again tried it with slicks, also because of the starting grid positions. After two formation laps, Maro Engel had an impressive start. With courageous overtaking moves on a damp track, he made up three places on the opening lap. After around 15 minutes, the two-time DTM race winner, the fastest driver in the field at the time, claimed what temporarily was second place.
Halfway through the race, Luca Stolz was one of the first drivers to come in for the mandatory pit stop and had dry-weather tyres put on his car. Soon after that, the group of the front runners also headed into the pit lane. At that stage, especially those drivers who had opted for slicks early on benefited. As a result, Maro Engel initially lost a position during his stop and dropped back on track as well after innocently having become involved in a collision. The Mercedes-AMG brand ambassador finished the action-packed race in fifth place. Luca Stolz was seventh across the finish line with the #4 GT3. His Mercedes-AMG Team HRT teammate Arjun Maini secured two points by finishing in 14th place. Lucas Auer also scored one point for finishing 15th after a faultless recovery drive in his home race. David Schumacher, whose team completed the fastest pit stop of the day, concluded the race in 18th position. Jusuf Owega, who had topped the timing sheets after practice on Friday with a time of 1m 28.345s, unfortunately had to park his #48 Mercedes-AMG GT3 early.
Race 2: Mercedes-AMG Teams show strong recovery drive in Sunday race
In the dry qualifying session on Sunday morning, the three customer sports teams had a hard time in completing a fast lap. With a time of 1m 28.148s, Arjun Maini posted the fastest lap time of all the Mercedes-AMG Drivers, resulting into 16th place on the grid for him. Luca Stolz qualified in 18th place, Lucas Auer in 21st and Maro Engel started his 90th DTM race from 23rd position. David Scumacher started from 25th place, followed by Jusuf Owega in 26th position.
During the race in the afternoon, the Mercedes-AMG GT3 proved to be significantly more competitive. In the opening stages already, the six AMG drivers managed to work their way several positions up. At this stage of the race, local hero Lucas Auer gained no less than seven places and initially ran in 14th place while Arjun Maini was twelfth with the #36 car going into the remainder of the race.
Although a slight drizzle set in around the track just before the pit window opened, the first drivers to stop opted for new dry-weather tyres and so did Mercedes-AMG Team HRT’s Arjun Maini, who was in the position with the best perspective. As the expected heavier rain didn’t arrive, the Mercedes-AMG Junior Driver made up some places by virtue of this decision. After the pit stops, the Indian was in tenth place with Lucas Auer and Maro Engel slotting in right behind him.
All three Mercedes-AMG Drivers subsequently brought their positions home. In tenth place, Arjun Maini confirmed his upward trend from the Sachsenring weekend. By finishing eleventh, Lucas Auer once again proved his impressive race pace. In total, he made up 22 positions across this weekend’s two races. Maro Engel also put in a strong recovery drive and scored three points for his twelfth-place finish. Classified 18th, David Schumacher repeated his position from the previous day as Jusuf Owega finished in 21st place. Due to vibrations on the rear axle, Luca Stolz parked the #4 Mercedes-AMG GT3 early for safety reasons.
At the Hockenheimring, DTM will stage its season finale on 21st and 22nd October. In the two remaining races, Mercedes-AMG still has mathematical chances of winning the manufacturers’ title that was last sealed in 2021. Currently, the performance and sports car brand from Affalterbach is in third place, 53 points down.
ADAC GT Masters: Salman Owega and Elias Seppänen lead the drivers’ standings prior to the season finale
In the penultimate ADAC GT Masters race weekend at Spielberg, Landgraf Motorsport drivers Salman Owega (GER) and Elias Seppänen (FIN) have come yet another step closer to turning their dream of winning the championship into reality. The duo with the #48 Mercedes-AMG GT3 finished in sixth place in the Sunday race and, with 158 championship points, the two are favourites for the drivers’ title going into the final two races at the Hockenheimring (21st/22nd October). They are 20 points clear of the second-placed. In total, there are 56 points still to be won.
Petru Umbrarescu (ROU) and Performance Driver Philip Ellis (SUI) of Haupt Racing Team achieved a podium result by finishing third with the #3 Mercedes-AMG GT3 on Sunday. Junior Driver Ralf Aron (EST) and Alain Valente (SUI) finished fourth and seventh with the #2 sister car.
“It was a very mixed weekend. Fifth and seventh place on Saturday are quite a decent result, but our joy is slightly subdued because of the contacts that cost Maro a podium finish. On Sunday, we still made the best out of it after the chequered qualifying. I am happy that Arjun has shown such a good race and was the best-placed AMG Driver in tenth place. Still, we didn’t meet our expectations, of course, so our focus is now on the season finale at Hockenheim that we want to conclude with good results.”
Thomas Jäger, sporting director DTM
“I am happy that we finished in the points in both races. On Saturday, it really was a pity that we weren’t able to score a podium finish. That would certainly have been possible. Especially in the wet, being in contention at the front was great fun. In the dry, we struggled considerably more. Today, we have seen that as well. We will continue to work hard and hope for better conditions at Hockenheim so that we can fight for good positions in the season finale.”
Maro Engel, Mercedes-AMG Team MANN-FILTER #48
“For us, it was a challenging weekend, but I finished in the points twice again and therefore I am happy. HRT has given me a super car and as a team, we did everything we could. Tenth place on Sunday is a good result. Now, there is still Hockenheim to run. We will try to further improve until then and end the season in a strong way.”
Arjun Maini, Mercedes-AMG Team HRT #36
“We got it wrong with the dry-weather tyres in qualifying on Saturday. As a result, we were forced to choose a different strategy for the race and went out with slicks again. Unfortunately, that was the slower option. Still, we made it all the way up to P15. Generally, we made a lot of progress in the two races, so we did a lot of things right there. Now, we only still have Hockenheim ahead of us. Prior to that, we will thoroughly analyse the weekend so that we can attack once again in the finale.”
Lucas Auer, Mercedes-AMG Team WINWARD #22
“This wasn’t our best weekend. Thankfully, we are still leading the championship and have two races ahead of us. I think, our chances of winning at Hockenheim are good. We will do our utmost to recover and try to come back as strongly as possible in the season finale.”
Salman Owega, Landgraf Motorsport #48
