Klaus Weber · DTM-Korrespondent
Five drivers from four different teams were separated by just 3.245 seconds at the front, while five cars failed to finish the distance.
Ben Dörr took victory in the second DTM race at Sachsenring on Sunday, September 13, 2026. The Dörr Motorsport driver started from fourth on the grid and crossed the line after 1:01:10.777 hours with a 1.219-second advantage over Thomas Preining (Manthey EMA). Ricardo Feller completed the podium in the second Manthey car, just 0.802 seconds behind Preining. Throughout the race distance, the field remained tight, with 17th place finishing less than eight seconds adrift of the winner.
Pole for Engel, Victory for Dörr
Maro Engel had secured Qualifying 2 with a time of 1:26.307, well ahead of Ricardo Feller and Jules Gounon. In the race, however, pole position proved not enough for victory: Engel crossed the line fifth, 3.245 seconds behind, overtaken by three drivers who started from worse grid positions. Dörr himself started only from fourth, Preining from sixth, and Feller from second in qualifying, yet neither could convert their starting positions into the win.
That the order shifted so dramatically between qualifying and the race suggests a race setup that differed significantly from the qualifying trim. Over a distance of just over an hour with a field that bunched up to less than eight seconds by the finish, tire degradation and the ability to move the car consistently over the full distance likely mattered more than pure one-lap pace from Saturday morning.
Five Retirements Shape the Midfield
Kelvin van der Linde, Jules Gounon, Nicki Thiim, Tom Kalender, and Nicolas Baert did not finish. Gounon's retirement weighs particularly heavily, as he had finished second in the opening race behind Marco Wittmann and started third in Qualifying 2, making him one of the favorites for another top result. Van der Linde, the Schubert driver, also failed to see the checkered flag from a solid starting position.
For the championship, this series of retirements shifts the balance of power in the field. Five of 22 cars failed to finish, the same number as the day before in Race 1, when an incident in the midfield involving Mapelli, Engstler, Glock, and Buus triggered a safety car period. Marco Wittmann, the winner of Race 1, could only manage seventh place this time, which should erode his championship lead.
Maximilian Paul Completes Full Distance Again for First Time
Maximilian Paul, who had to miss months of racing after his heavy accident during the Norisring event in July with fractures to his shin and calf bones plus his first lumbar vertebra, ran his comeback weekend at Sachsenring. After retiring from Race 1, he finished Race 2 in eleventh place and thus completed the full race distance for the first time since his injury.
A midfield result might seem unremarkable at first glance, but for Paul and his team GRT Grasser Racing Team, it should represent an important signal given the circumstances, indicating that physical fitness over a complete race distance has been restored.
Looking at the Overall Standings
With Ben Dörr's victory and Jules Gounon's retirement, the picture at the top of the championship should shift noticeably. Wittmann remains up front after both races of the weekend, but his lead should be smaller following his seventh-place finish in Race 2 compared to his win in Race 1.
Preining, who had already taken third in Race 1, confirmed his consistency with second place in Race 2. Feller improved from 13th in Race 1 to third in Race 2, a jump that shows Manthey EMA had hit the setup significantly better on the second race day than the first.
For the coming weekends, the key question remains whether the tight field strength from Sachsenring continues. With a gap of less than eight seconds back to 17th place, every detail in pit strategy and tire management should decide the next podium finishes.
