Thomas Preining secured the second DTM title of his career at the season finale at Hockenheimring.
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| Photo: DTM |
The DTM season has officially come to an end, crowning its new champion — Thomas Preining. However, the answer to the question of who would take the title was not as clear before the weekend as it might have seemed, as a total of six drivers were still mathematically in contention for the championship.
The closest opponent to Preining was Mercedes driver Maro Engel, who was 23 points behind him. However, Marco Wittmann was only one point further behind, trailing Preining by 24 points. The other three drivers — Lucas Auer, Matteo Cairoli and Timo Glock — had, we could say, more of a mathematical chance than a realistic one of winning the title.
The chances of all six drivers were significantly reduced after the first race of the weekend, which was held on Saturday. Preining finished fifth, right behind his main opponents, Engel and Wittmann, who finished fourth and third, respectively. Heading into the final race on Sunday, Preining was comfortably ahead of Engel and Wittmann in the drivers' standings.
Preining qualified only seventh for the second race, while Engel qualified third and Wittmann was further down the order in P16. In the race itself, Maro Engel did everything he could, winning the race. However, Preining fought his way to third position, which was enough for him to secure the title.
"It's not exactly pleasant when you can basically only lose.
"The goal had been to drive a clean race, without contact, and we managed that. I'm really proud of my team," said Preining after the race.
"As our founder of Mercedes-AMG once said, you don't have to become champion every year with Mercedes-AMG, but you should always be in a position to fight for the championship with it," Engel added. "We did that again this year, and we will keep fighting," he told the media.
The DTM season will return on 23–25 April at the Red Bull Ring.