Klaus Weber · DTM-Korrespondent
Thomas Preining arrives at the DTM season finale as championship leader with 197 points, his 23-point advantage over Maro Engel is comfortable, but mathematically the title is not yet decided.
Thomas Preining enters the season finale on October 9-11 at the Hockenheimring as defending champion with the best starting position of his DTM career. After 14 of 16 races, the Porsche driver from Manthey EMA leads the drivers' championship with 197 points, 23 ahead of Maro Engel in the Mercedes-AMG and 24 clear of two-time champion Marco Wittmann in the BMW. At the Baden circuit, a maximum of 56 points are available across qualifying and the two remaining races, keeping the title fight formally open, though the odds have clearly shifted in favor of the Austrian.
The math heading into the weekend
A 23-point lead with 56 points still to be awarded means Preining has not mathematically clinched the title, but could secure it as early as Saturday in several scenarios should he win the first race while Engel drops back significantly. For that to happen, the gap to Engel after Saturday's race would need to grow beyond the points still available on Sunday. Depending on qualifying results, which also award points in DTM, this calculation shifts slightly but remains fundamentally straightforward: Preining essentially needs only to manage what he has built over recent weeks.
Wittmann and Engel, by contrast, would need nearly flawless weekends combined with retirements or weak results from Preining to close the gap. According to DTM officials, Lucas Auer, Matteo Cairoli, and Nicki Thiim also remain mathematically in contention, though their deficit is so large that practically every scenario requires a sequence of circumstances well beyond pure driving performance.
Six podiums in a row: the defending champion's form
After a mixed run through the middle of the season, Preining switched gears in the second half. Six consecutive podiums, including a second-place finish at the Sachsenring, have created this lead. Such a streak in DTM rarely comes from raw pace alone but typically from a combination of stable setup and a crew that leaves nothing on the table during pit stops. After four years together at Manthey EMA, competing consistently in the points since 2023, the team knows the Porsche's race-trim characteristics well enough to find the right setup even as track conditions vary. For Hockenheim with its long straights and relatively modest downforce requirements, this matters: whoever nails the balance between top speed and traction exiting the two slow chicanes in qualifying trim locks in a grid advantage that is extremely difficult to recover in DTM's tight competitive field. Preining's recent consistency suggests that Manthey EMA has reliably found exactly that setup.
The challengers: Engel, Wittmann, and the underdogs
Engel and Wittmann can only make an impact if Preining makes mistakes or technical problems set him back. Both have shown this season they are competitive on fast tracks, and Wittmann, as a two-time champion, knows how to handle a title-deciding weekend under pressure. For Engel, qualifying will likely prove decisive: on the Hockenheimring with its limited overtaking opportunities, a poor grid position weighs particularly heavily.
For Auer, Cairoli, and Thiim, the title remains a theoretical option that would only come into play with an almost collective collapse among the front runners. More realistically, their goal for the final race is to score podium finishes and with them constructors' championship points before the cards are reshuffled for next season. The title is likely to be decided by Preining himself and whether Manthey EMA executes its pit stop window as cleanly this weekend as it has recently, because a tenth lost at the wrong moment is all it takes in such a tightly packed championship to turn a 23-point lead into genuine suspense.
