Klaus Weber · DTM-Korrespondent
A weekend with two faces: up front, Wittmann and Preining fought for every tenth, while multiple drivers in the field completely detached themselves from their qualifying results.
Marco Wittmann (Schubert Motorsport) won the opening race of the DTM weekend on September 12-13, 2026 at the Sachsenring from pole position, with Ben Dörr (Dörr Motorsport) securing a surprise victory the next day from fourth on the grid. Between these two results lies the real story of the weekend: a field that ran tight in qualifying but produced massive position swaps in the races, plus two retirements of prominent names that should reshape the championship picture.
Qualifying form: Wittmann leads, Engel sharpens on Sunday
The two free practice sessions on Friday showed a tight field without a clear favorite. Thomas Preining (Manthey EMA) set the best time in FP1 at 1:18.148 ahead of Kelvin van der Linde (1:18.235) and Ricardo Feller (1:18.361), but the second session told a different story: Feller topped FP2 with 1:18.857 ahead of Preining, while Marco Wittmann moved into contention with third place.
In Saturday's first qualifying, Wittmann made his statement: 1:17.627 secured pole ahead of Preining (+0.126 seconds) and Jules Gounon (+0.289). Van der Linde slotted in fourth, Maro Engel fifth. One notable absence from this session: Lucas Auer was reported to have suffered a right rear hub failure at Turn 8, forcing him out early and bringing out the red flag. For Race One, that meant he would start from the back of the grid.
Sunday's second qualifying flipped the order dramatically: Engel grabbed pole with 1:26.307 ahead of Feller and Gounon once more. Wittmann, by contrast, could manage only 19th place, a preview of how different qualifying trim and race trim would prove to be all weekend.
Race One: Wittmann controls, Auer fights back from the rear
Wittmann converted his pole into a controlled Race One victory, taking the checkered flag 0.450 seconds clear of Gounon, with Preining completing the top three 3.684 seconds back. The top three starters held their order almost unchanged, and van der Linde fourth and Matteo Cairoli sixth similarly confirmed their qualifying positions with minimal reshuffling.
The most striking movement came from the very back: Auer, starting from the back after Saturday's qualifying exit, fought through to 11th place at the finish. Dörr also showed early what his car could do in race trim, climbing from 15th on the grid to tenth by the flag. At the other end, Tom Kalender lost seven positions from his seventh-place start to finish 14th, after reports indicated a hard battle with Nicki Thiim following a position swap, with Thiim allegedly pushing him to the outside of the corner during the overtake attempt.
A multi-car collision marked the middle of the field: Bastian Buus tangled with Marco Mapelli, Luca Engstler, and Timo Glock, sliding into the gravel and triggering a safety car period. The stewards found Buus without fault in the collision, allowing him to continue after repair, but he had to park the car for good around the midpoint due to additional tire damage. Mapelli and Engstler retired following the same incident. Maximilian Paul, reported to be making his comeback at his home weekend after a heavy summer crash at the Norisring, also retired after 27 laps, though unconnected to the multi-car pile-up.
Race Two: Dörr's leap from fourth and the big race-trim winners
Dörr drove from fourth on the grid to victory in Race Two, finishing 1.219 seconds clear of Preining, who climbed from sixth on the grid to second place. Feller completed the podium in third from second on the grid. Once again, the session demonstrated how little qualifying pace translated to race pace.
Cairoli embodied this most dramatically: starting 17th, he finished fourth, a gain of 13 positions and the biggest improvement of the entire weekend. Wittmann (from 19th to seventh), Thierry Vermeulen (from 18th to eighth), and Arjun Maini (from 21st to twelfth) also showed far stronger race-trim competitiveness than their grid positions suggested, hinting that the balance of performance worked differently in race conditions than over a single quick lap. Finn Wiebelhaus rounded out the trend by posting the fastest race lap from 22nd on the grid to finish 13th.
Two championship contenders were absent from the finish, however: van der Linde retired from seventh place after reportedly making contact with Engel (who finished fifth) at Turn One. Gounon, starting third, also failed to see the checkered flag. Over the weekend as a whole, Preining accumulated the most points with two podiums and second in Sunday's qualifying, closely followed by Wittmann thanks to pole and Race One victory. Dörr's second-race triumph puts him in that front group as well and should tighten the championship fight heading into the next weekend, while van der Linde and Gounon have ground to make up after their retirements.
