Dorr claims first DTM victory for McLaren at the Dekra Lausitzring

A perfect strategy, a courageous tire selection, and the necessary luck helped Ben Dörr (Butzbach/Dörr Motorsport) claim his first DTM victory in Saturday's race at the Dekra Lausitzring. The 21-year-old's win was also the historic first DTM success for McLaren, and means there have now been five different winners in the first five races of the season.

"This win is very special for me! I would obviously rather have celebrated this success on the podium, but it is still an incredible moment for me. Now in our third year in the DTM, our goal was to compete at the very front of the field. We have done that, and want to continue to do so," said Dörr.

Despite the track being wet after a downpour before the start, he started the race from tenth place on Pirelli slicks. In doing so, he laid the foundation for his win. The youngster initially took the checkered flag in second place behind Lamborghini driver Marco Mapelli (I/Red Bull Team Abt). However, the Italian was subsequently penalised for an offence during a yellow phase, leaving Dörr to inherit the victory. Ricardo Feller (CH/Manthey) celebrated his first Porsche podium in the DTM. Like Mapelli, the Swiss was handed a 15-second penalty after the race, but had a big enough advantage to remain third.

Shortly before the start of race five of the DTM season, there was a heavy downpour at the Lausitzring. However, this had stopped by the start of Saturday afternoon's race. Despite this, most teams opted to fit the Pirelli wet-weather tire. A number of drivers, including pole-sitter Nicki Thiim (DK/Comtoyou Racing), Dörr, Mapelli, Feller and Marco Wittmann (Fürth/Schubert Motorsport) took a chance on slicks. This meant they were initially unable to match the pace of the rest of the field. However, this changed as the race progressed and the asphalt became increasingly dry. Thiim retook the lead shortly before the pit stop window, while Dörr found himself in sixth place at this point.

Incidents came thick and fast after that. When Timo Glock (Kreuzlingen/Dörr Motorsport) rolled to a stop with a technical issue on his McLaren 720S GT3 Evo, Thiim pulled into the pits on lap 13 for his tire change. One lap later, the trio of Mapelli, Dörr and Feller came in, just seconds before a Full Course Yellow applied the brakes to the entire field. Pit stops during the yellow phase allowed the three drivers to open a lead of more than 20 seconds over Thiim. The order then remained unchanged until the finish. As Mapelli and Feller had exceeded the 80 km/h limit during the yellow phase, they were both given a time penalty after the race, which resulted in Dörr being named the winner. Mapelli and Feller followed in second and third place.

"That was a really good race for us," said Feller. "I am delighted with my first DTM podium for Porsche and Manthey. In the first few laps, it was just about keeping the car on the track. Our game plan worked perfectly, and we had a super pit stop. I would obviously have liked to have challenged for the win, but I simply did not have the pace to do so."

Thiim crossed the finish line at the Lausitzring in fourth place. Wittmann, who also started on slicks, produced an impressive fightback and climbed from 18th to fifth place. Lucas Auer (A/Mercedes-AMG Team Landgraf) returned to the top of the table after finishing sixth. Jules Gounon (F/Mercedes-AMG Team Mann-Filter) ended race five of the season in seventh place, Matteo Cairoli (I) followed in eighth place in the Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo of Emil Frey Racing. Ford driver Arjun Maini (IND/HRT Ford Performance) took ninth place ahead of Kelvin van der Linde (ZA/Schubert Motorsport) in a BMW M4 GT3 Evo.

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