Thiim doubles up at Norisring DTM

It was a dream weekend for Nicki Thiim (Comtoyou Racing) at the sold-out Norisring: the Aston Martin driver backed up his victory on Saturday by winning Sunday's race from pole position. The Dane's stunning brace was enough to catapult him to the top of the DTM table.

"An unbelievable weekend for me! Two pole positions and two wins feel like a dream. After my father in 1992, my grand goal has always been for the name Thiim to one day return to the top of the table in the DTM. Finn Wiebelhaus put me under incredible pressure over the course of the race. My experience definitely helped me there," said Thiim.

Finn Wiebelhaus (HRT Ford Racing) also produced a great display at the street circuit in Nuremberg. He came home 0.887s behind Thiim to take second place in a Ford Mustang GT3 and earn the second podium of his rookie season. Lucas Auer (A/Mercedes-AMG Team Landgraf) completed the podium, working his way to third place from fifth on the grid.

It began to rain lightly at the Norisring shortly after the start of Sunday's race. At this point, all the drivers were on slicks. Pole-sitter Thiim led from Wiebelhaus, his teammate Arjun Maini and Auer. Ten minutes into the race, increasingly heavy rain and a collision involving Ferrari driver Matteo Cairoli (Emil Frey Racing) and Luca Engstler (Red Bull Team Abt) in a Lamborghini Temerario GT3 caused the action to be suspended for 14 minutes. When the field returned to the street circuit on wet-weather tires, Auer took advantage of a lack of concentration from Maini and climbed into third place.

Shortly after that, it stopped raining and the drivers used the first mandatory pit stop to switch back to slicks. Wiebelhaus, who had changed tires a little earlier, attacked race leader Thiim in the subsequent laps. However, the 37-year-old, at the wheel of an Aston Martin Vantage GT3, was able to fend off every attack. In fact, he actually extended his lead and had a clear advantage after a perfect second pit stop.

Wiebelhaus and Auer followed in second and third place. Maini came home fourth, despite a poor pit stop. Fifth place went to Jules Gounon (Mercedes-AMG Team Mann-Filter).

Thierry Vermeulen (Emil Frey Racing) guided his Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo to sixth place. Maro Engel (Mercedes-AMG Team Ravenol) climbed five place to finish seventh and no lies second in the table, behind Thiim and ahead of Auer. Porsche driver Bastian Buus (Land-Motorsport) actually made up seven positions to come home eighth ahead of fellow Porsche racer Preining. Local favorite Marco Wittmann (Schubert Motorsport) showed great fighting spirit at his home event, and battled his way to tenth place from 18th on the grid.