DTM

Victory in Spielberg! Bortolotti takes the lead

Mirko Bortolotti celebrates in Spielberg.(Bild: GEPA)

Mirko Bortolotti took the overall lead in the German Touring Car Masters (DTM) with a victory in Spielberg on Saturday. The Lamborghini driver from Vienna, who competes under an Italian license, triumphed at the Red Bull Ring ahead of the German Maro Engel and the Indian Arjun Maini.

Tyrolean Lucas Auer finished seventh, while last year's champion Thomas Preining failed to finish higher than twelfth after a botched qualifying session and appears to be out of the title race.

Fourth DTM victory
For Bortolotti, son of the famous Viennese ice cream parlor dynasty, it was his fourth DTM victory overall and his first of the season. The 34-year-old now leads the championship by ten points from previous leader Kelvin van der Linde from South Africa (Audi) and twelve points from German Maro Engel (Mercedes). Another race is scheduled for Sunday (13:30/live on ServusTV and ProSieben) in Spielberg, followed by the two-race finale in Hockenheim in three weeks' time.

(Bild: GEPA)

Bortolotti dominated the early stages of the race on wet tires. Porsche man Preining had to fight his way forward from 18th on the grid. In the overall standings, the Upper Austrian is already 65 points behind Bortolotti in fifth place with three races to go. Mercedes driver Auer is twelfth. His Tyrolean compatriot Clemens Schmid was the first to switch to dry tires on his McLaren on a drying track and also scored a point in 15th place.