The third-to-last DTM race weekend of the season at the Nürburgring turned into a triumph for Marco Wittmann. The two-time champion celebrated his first win of the season and the 20th of his career on Sunday in the #11 Schaeffler BMW M4 GT3 EVO. On Saturday, he had already collected many valuable points by finishing third on the podium. In the battle for his third drivers’ title, he is back in the fight, now in fifth place with 135 points and a 25-point gap to the top. Kelvin van der Linde endured a frustrating weekend.
With fourth and sixth place in the two qualifying sessions, Wittmann secured good starting positions for the races. He made good use of these already on Saturday, and on Sunday he did even better thanks to his driving skill and the outstanding performance of the Schubert Motorsport team. At the end of a strategically perfect race with strong pit stops, he claimed his first DTM victory since Zandvoort 2024. In the drivers’ standings, Wittmann is once again within reach of his third title, while in the team standings, Schubert Motorsport is third with 201 points and a 30-point gap to the top. Kelvin van der Linde had a weekend to forget as on Saturday he retired due to a technical issue, and on Sunday, he was innocently involved in a start accident.
Congratulations to Marco Wittmann on a fantastic DTM weekend at the Nürburgring! We knew that if we wanted to get back into the title fight after the recent difficult races, we would need very strong results at the Nürburgring. Marco achieved this in perfect fashion. I feel very sorry for Kelvin van der Linde. He also had the pace for podium finishes, but this year in DTM, bad luck has been following him.
A fantastic weekend for Marco Wittmann. After two years of drought, he was finally able to celebrate another DTM victory. Congratulations to him and many thanks to my team for the great performance! Thanks to all the points, we at least have a theoretical chance in the title race again. For Kelvin van der Linde, the weekend was incredibly bitter. It just doesn’t seem to be his season.
Driver statements.
Marco Wittmann (#11 Schaeffler BMW M4 GT3 EVO, Race 1: 3rd place, Race 2: 1st place): “I am extremely happy about this weekend! After some difficult events this season, finally everything went right from Friday onwards. The victory on Sunday was hard-fought in the end. Thomas Preining and Tom Kalender put me under a lot of pressure. Luckily for me, Thomas was a good buffer to Tom in the final laps, as Tom was much faster on new tyres. Many thanks to my team, who got the strategy spot on and delivered perfect pit stops. I’m proud of you!”
Kelvin van der Linde (#3 Shell BMW M4 GT3 EVO, Race 1: DNF, Race 2: DNF): “To put it mildly, the weekend was a disaster. Two retirements in two races – that’s obviously not why we compete in DTM. I still have four races left to finish the season properly. Many thanks to Schubert Motorsport for the good work. Hopefully, I can still score some important points in the fight for the team title.”