At the Nürburgring sprint circuit: commanding lights-to-flag win for Tim Heinemann
Three manufacturers on the podium: Mercedes, Porsche, and BMW
Duel for third place thrills spectators
The opposition still has nothing in store for Tim Heinemann in the DTM Trophy: at the Nürburgring sprint circuit, the 22-year-old German driver of the HP Racing International team drove an undisputed victory home with his Mercedes-AMG GT, his fifth season win in the Trophy and also his fifth consecutive victory. Compatriot Peter Terting (Porsche, PROsport Racing) showed a strong performance and defended his second place from lights to flag. British driver Ben Green (BMW, FK Performance Motorsport) rounded out the podium but had to fight for his position until the final lap as a charging Jan Kisiel (POL, Mercedes-AMG, Leipert Motorsport) attacked regularly and staged thrilling situations for the spectators in the Eifel.
The first exciting moment already happened right before the start as the Audi R8 LMS of Swiss driver Lucas Mauron (Hella pagid – racing one) caught fire just before the field was released. While the other drivers headed towards the first corner, Mauron showed the right response as he moved his car that had its rear end on fire off the track in time and parked it on the grass. That resulted in a brief safety car intervention. The restart didn’t bring any position changes at the front of the field. While Mauron’s race was over, race leader Heinemann pulled away from the rest of the field. While Terting was unable to close the gap to Heinemann, the German did manage to keep his closest rival Green at bay.
Kisiel stages a thrilling duel for third place
The latter had plenty of work to keep Jan Kisiel at bay. The Pole was showing a spirited drive as he had realistic chances of a podium finish. Having started from seventh on the grid, Kisiel made up several positions and was right on the rear of Ben Green’s BMW M4 until the final lap of the race. There, however, progress for the Leipert Mercedes driver came to a halt as Green drove a defensive line and made clever use of the M4’s good top speed on the straights. A three-way fight over several laps for ninth place between newcomer Nico Verdonck (BEL) with the Ring Racing Toyota, Swiss Felix Hirsiger (Porsche, Allied Racing) and Luke Wankmüller (GER, BMW, FK Performance Motorsport), in which Verdonck eventually came out on top, also provided entertaining racing.
DTM Trophy action continues on Sunday (start at 15.15 hrs, live on the streaming platform grid.dtm.com). Points’ leader Heinemann further extended his margin and is now in front at 178 points. Kisiel maintained second place with 96 points from Green (87) who is third in the standings, tied on points with Ben Tuck (GBR, BMW, Walkenhorst Motorsport).
» Quotes – race 1, Nürburgring Sprint
“The team has done a perfect job: actually, I only had to get into the car and drive. That is the way it should be. In the race, I was in control as well. The start worked out well and so did the restart. After that, I was able to slightly pull away from Peter Terting. Then he tried to attack, but I was able to keep him at bay because his tyres started to degrade. From then on, everything was in control.”
Tim Heinemann (GER), Mercedes-AMG, HP Racing International
“The first podium finish really is a relief. I am also very happy for our team PROsport, these are all young people between 23 and 27 years. They have been working really hard and it is great that the hard work now finally has paid off. A key factor for the success was that we did a lot of testing and have improved the car step by step. As to the race, I briefly had the feeling that I would be able to attack Tim Heinemann and I discussed it with the crew in the box, but a few laps later, we then decided rather to play it safe.”
Peter Terting (GER), Porsche, PROsport Racing
“I had a lot of work to keep Jan Kisiel at bay. These were hard, but fair duels that I really enjoyed. There was some contact involved, too, but that is racing. Tyre deg was a bit high, that caused me some trouble towards the end of the race. Then, it was just about defending, but I stayed calm, kept my nerves. We can be very happy with third place because that was all we could get.”
Bern Green (GBR), BMW, FK Motorsport Performance