DTM 2022: Sheldon van der Linde wins at the Lausitzring

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Sheldon van der Linde let his joy run free, all the frustration of the past season had to come out: The South African celebrated the first victory of 2022 in the new BMW M4 GT3! “Yes, baby, yes, yes,” he yelled into the radio. It was obvious how relieved van der Linde was. “I have no words, without shit. My last DTM victory was two years ago. It feels just as good now,” he said. For newcomers Schubert Motorsport it was the first success in the DTM, for van der Linde it was the end a long dry spell.

The jubilation was particularly great for van der Linde because the 23-year-old had a real horror season behind him. For the proven GT specialist, pretty much everything that could go wrong went wrong at Rowe in 2021 in the old M6. Despite his expertise, he didn’t even make it onto the podium. The satisfaction was all the greater after his second victory in the traditional racing series, his first victory was in 2019 in the old BMW Class 1 car.

“I have no words”

“I have no words,” said van der Linde after the award ceremony. “We can celebrate now, it took a long time. We’re enjoying it, but we still have a job to do on Sunday. And if we can do it, we’ll be up there again.”

The decision was made early on, when van der Linde, starting from second on the grid, outdid pole setter Lucas Auer at the flying start and cleverly exploited the top speed of the BMW. After the pit stop, van der Linde stayed just in front and didn’t let his success be taken away from him.

Mercedes presented itself as strong as an ox: Behind van der Linde, Luca Stolz (HRT) and Auer (Winward) also finished on the podium in second and third place. Arjun Maini (HRT) and Maro Engel (GruppeM) rounded out a strong result for the star brand.

Auer took the lead in the overall standings with his third place, the nephew of DTM boss Gerhard Berger now has 44 points and replaces Mirko Bortolotti, who finished sixth in the Grasser-Lamborghini and has 43 points. “In the end you have to take the good days with you, and we didn’t do that. That hurts in a field like this,” Auer was still not satisfied.

As the best Porsche driver, Laurens Vanthoor (SSR Performance) finished seventh ahead of three-time champion René Rast (Abt-Audi). The top ten were completed by Nick Cassidy (AF Corse) and defending champion Maximilian Götz (Winward).

Schumacher unlucky

Rookie David Schumacher (Winward-Mercedes) was unlucky: The son of ex-F1 driver Ralf Schumacher finished 17th in qualifying, but was dropped ten places because the wrong tires were used on his car in practice. In the race he then had to give up early.

Thomas Preining, who showed a strong performance, was also unlucky. Until the final phase of the race, the Austrian had his eye on the top ten points in the Bernhard team’s Porsche, but then had to park his car and got nothing.

There were quite a few retirements anyway: Marco Wittmann (Walkenhorst) and Philipp Eng (Schubert) had to park their BMW with technical problems, for Nico Müller (Rosberg), Kelvin van der Linde and Ricardo Feller (both Abt) was also earlier in the Audis Ending. Felipe Fraga also retired in the AF Corse Ferrari while still on a points course. A total of ten of the 29 cars did not see the checkered flag.

DTM Lausitzring – 1st race

1. Sheldon van der Linde (South Africa) – BMW M4 GT3 56:48.270 min.
2. Luca Stolz (Brachbach) – Mercedes-AMG GT3 +3.590 sec.
3. Lucas Auer (Austria) – Mercedes-AMG GT3 +5.427
4. Arjun Maini (India) – Mercedes-AMG GT3 +7.752
5. Maro Engel (Munich) – Mercedes-AMG GT3 +9.142
6. Mirko Bortolotti (Italy) – Lamborghini Huracan GT3 +13.654
7. Laurens Vanthoor (Belgium) – Porsche 911 GT3 R +17.577
8. Rene Rast (Minden) – Audi R8 GT3 +19.056
9. Nick Cassidy (New Zealand) – Ferrari +19.303
10. Maximilian Goetz (Uffenheim) – Mercedes-AMG GT3 +21.425

Driver Rating
Standing after 3 of 16 races

1. Lucas Auer (Austria) – Mercedes 44 pts.
2. Mirko Bortolotti (Italy) – Lamborghini 43
3. Sheldon van der Linde (South Africa) – BMW 38
4. Luca Stolz (Brachbach) – Mercedes-Benz 37
5. Nico Müller (Switzerland) – Audi 28
6. Felipe Fraga (Brazil) – Ferrari 20
7. Kelvin van der Linde (South Africa) – Audi 20
8. Laurens Vanthoor (Belgium) – Porsche 16
9. Maro Engel (Munich) – Mercedes 13
10. Arjun Maini (India) – Mercedes-Benz 12

Manufacturer rating

1. Mercedes 107 points
2. Audi 66
3. BMW 51
4. Lamborghini 46
5. Porsche 28
6. Ferrari 23

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