DTM Zandvoort: Feller dominates as Audi scores first win of 2023

With Audi having been handed a 20kg weight reduction overnight, Feller was able to take pole position in a red-flagged qualifying and then lead every lap en route to a second career win at the Dutch venue.

Manthey EMA’s Thomas Preining finished 2.7s behind Feller to score his second podium of the season, while HRT Mercedes driver Luca Stolz rounded out the rostrum spots after holding off Project 1 BMW rival Marco Wittmann.

At the start of the race, Feller pulled away cleanly from pole position in his Audi, while Saturday winner Maro Engel got the jump on Preining to move up to second.

By the end of lap 1, Feller’s advantage over Engel was already over a second, as he aimed to replicate the strategy that helped the Landgraf Mercedes driver claim victory in the opening race of the weekend.

In a repeat of Engel’s performance, Feller extended his advantage to well over three seconds by the time the pit windows opened after 20 minutes of racing, and finally took his mandatory stop at the end of lap 19 along with Engel.

Feller emerged on track with a reduced two-second lead over Preining, who had managed to undercut Engel, but was able to get his tyres quickly up to temperature and prevent his Porsche rival from closing up on him.

From there on, Feller enjoyed an untroubled run to the chequered flag, claiming his first victory in the DTM since the opening race at Imola last year.

Stolz jumped Wittmann in the pits and resisted the advances of the two-time champion in the battle for the final spot of the podium, finishing just 0.249 clear after 39 laps of racing.

Engel’s decision to delay his stop until lap 19 backfired as he was not only overhauled in the pits by Preining, but also lost places to both Stolz and Wittmann on his outlap on cold tyres.

With 20kg of success ballast on his car, the German driver was unable to take advantage of fresher tyres to close back on them, eventually finishing several seconds down in fifth.

Feller’s team-mate Kelvin van der Linde enjoyed a strong run to sixth from 12th on the grid, making some bold moves on both sides of his pitstop to secure a double top 10 finish for the Abt team.

Ayhancan Guven finished seventh for the Bernhard Porsche team, while Patric Niederhauser finished eighth in the Orange1 Audi after picking up a long-lap penalty for an unsafe release - Niederhauser’s car having been released to the fast lane in the path of van der Linde.

Dennis Olsen came home ninth for Manthey EMA, while reigning champion Sheldon van der Linde recovered from an underwhelming qualifying to complete the top 10 in the Schubert BMW.

There was also some consolation for Lamborghini after a woeful qualifying session for the Italian manufacturer, with SSR Performance’s Mirko Bortolotti climbing from 19th on the grid to finish 11th.

Christian Engelhart (Toksport WRT Porsche), Mattia Drudi (Orange1 Audi), Franck Perera (SSR Performance) and Luca Ensgtler (Engstler Audi) rounded out the points scorers.

Team Bernhard’s Luca Heinrich ran as high as fourth in the first stint but finished a lap down after spinning at the bottom of the banking after his pitstop.

Albert Costa, substituting for Jack Aitken at Emil Frey Ferrari, parked his car coming out of Turn 4 with what appeared to be a technical issue, while Winward’s Lucas Auer retired on the opening lap after his Mercedes was damaged  in a startline incident with Sheldon van der Linde’s BMW.

DTM Zandvoort - Sunday race results:

Cla	#	Driver	Car	Gap
1	7	Ricardo Feller	Audi R8 LMS Evo II
2	91	Thomas Preining	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	2.719
3	4	Luca Stolz	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	3.821
4	11	Marco Wittmann	BMW M4 GT3	0.249
5	48	Maro Engel	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	4.055
6	3	Kelvin van der Linde	Audi R8 LMS Evo II	0.883
7	24	Ayhancan Güven	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	3.865
8	83	Patric Niederhauser	Audi R8 LMS Evo II	0.570
9	90	Dennis Olsen	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	0.825
10	1	Sheldon Van Der Linde	BMW M4 GT3	1.435
11	92	Mirko Bortolotti	Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 2	7.402
12	99	Christian Engelhart	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	0.731
13	40	Mattia Drudi	Audi R8 LMS Evo II	1.462
14	94	Frank Perera	Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 2	1.808
15	8	Luca Engstler	Audi R8 LMS Evo II	1.038
16	27	David Schumacher	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	7.903
17	9	Tim Heinemann	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	7.777
18	36	Arjun Maini	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	0.605
	63	Clemens Schmid	Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 2
	19	Mick Wishofer	Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 2	17 Laps
	69	Thierry Vermeulen	Ferrari 296 GT3
	75	Laurin Heinrich	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)
	14	Jack Aitken	Ferrari 296 GT3
	84	Jusuf Owega	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo
	6	Alessio Deledda	Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 2
	33	René Rast	BMW M4 GT3
	22	Lucas Auer	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo
View full results