Manthey EMA’s Preining fell behind each van de Linde and Feller at one stage, however shortly repassed the Abt Audi duo to say his first win of the 2024 season and transfer as much as second within the standings.
Firstly of the race, the reigning champion pulled away cleanly from pole place to carry the lead over Feller, however couldn’t shake off the Swiss driver and his team-mate van der Linde, who had received the bounce on the SSR Efficiency Lamborghini of Mirko Bortolotti.
Firstly of lap 4, Feller positioned his Audi across the exterior of Preining’s Porsche into Flip 1, which gave him the within line into the next right-hander. Regardless of operating barely over the grass, Feller was capable of barge his well past the Austrian, snatching the lead for the primary time within the race.
A short security automobile interval for Clemens Schmid’s Dorr McLaren threatened to upset the established order, nevertheless it wasn’t till the pit window opened after 20 minutes of racing that the order on the entrance modified once more.
Preining was the primary of the leaders to dive into the pits, with Feller and van der Linde coming in on successive laps.
Feller did handle to retain the lead initially out of the pits, however Preining’s tyres had been already as much as temperature and he discovered his well past the Audi on lap 18 to seize the highest spot once more.
Nevertheless, the time they spent battling on monitor left them susceptible to an overcut from van der Linde, who duly leapfrogged each of them by finishing his obligatory pitstop a lap later.
This put Preining within the worst doable place, sandwiched by the 2 Abt drivers and with the danger of shedding second place as effectively. However the 25-year-old managed to outfox his rivals, streaming previous van der Linde with a daring transfer on the hairpin to make the decisive move for victory.
Feller additionally cleared van der Linde just a few corners later, though the stewards later requested him handy again the place for an unlawful overtake.
Earlier than Feller and van der Linde may commerce spots, the protection automobile was deployed but once more, this time for a collision between Maximilian Paul and Luca Stolz that left each their automobiles beached within the gravel at Flip 6.
It was solely when the race resumed with 13 minutes left on the clock that Feller may give strategy to his team-mate, by which era Preining had already mastered the restart to cement his place on the entrance.
Van der Linde, regardless of having 20kg of success ballast after his victory on Saturday, saved the strain up on Preining until the tip, however the manufacturing facility Porsche driver was comparatively untroubled as he took the chequered flag with a successful margin of 1.4s.
Feller ended up an extra 1.5s again, whereas Bortolotti ended up fourth within the sole-surviving SSR Lamborghini after team-mate Nicki Thiim was compelled to retire early with a brake subject.
Three-time DTM champion Rene Rast managed to tug his Schubert BMW to as excessive as fifth after beginning thirteenth on the grid, however an ill-fated passing try on Bortolotti on the ultimate flip allowed the GRT Lamborghini of Luca Englster to make the most of the scenario and full the highest 5.
Rast nonetheless managed to complete as the highest BMW in sixth forward of the Winward Mercedes of Maro Engel, who put in an much more spectacular restoration drive after being shuffled to the again of the grid for a technical infringement in qualifying.
Schubert BMW’s Sheldon van der Linde and Marco Wittmann had been eighth and ninth respectively, whereas Lucas Auer accomplished the highest 10 within the second of the 2 Winward Mercedes automobiles.
Solely 16 automobiles completed the race, that means everybody besides Sixteenth-placed Ben Dorr (Dorr McLaren) scored factors.