Regardless of heavy rain prompting two pink flag durations and resulting in a begin/cease race, van der Linde saved his calm to transform pole place right into a dominant victory over the Mercedes of Maro Engel.
Defending champion Thomas Preining ended up third within the Manthey EMA Porsche, making it three completely different producers on the rostrum.
The race acquired underway at 5pm native time with the solar shining brightly on the observe, as Ricardo Feller acquired the leap on front-row starter Preining to ascertain an Abt 1-2 behind team-mate van der Linde.
Though the primary raindrops had been noticed as early as lap 2, it wasn’t till the fourth tour that it began pouring down correctly, utterly altering the complexion of the race.
The primary batch of vehicles headed to the pitlane on the finish of lap 5, with Arjun Maini within the HRT Mercedes the main driver to make the swap to moist tyres. Roughly half the sphere determined to remain out at this level, partly due to the anticipated time loss from double-stacking within the pits.
Because the rain continued to get heavier, the rest of the sphere entered the pits over the following two laps, with van der Linde managing to remain forward of Mercedes duo Maro Engel and Maini, each of whom had pitted on the first alternative.
SSR Efficiency’s Nicki Thiim and Porsche ace Preining ran fourth and fifth at this stage, with Thiim in a while overtaking Maini for third.
With rain displaying no indicators of abating and drivers complaining about standing water on observe, the security automotive was deployed quickly after, earlier than the pink flag was waved after simply 14 minutes of working.
A 15-minute delay adopted earlier than the session may resume behind the security automotive once more, though it didn’t take lengthy for the race management to carry proceedings to a halt once more.
It wasn’t till 6pm native time that the race resumed in earnest after one other three laps behind the security automotive, with van der Linde heading off Engel to carry on to the lead.
The South African continued to increase his benefit with each passing lap, constructing a buffer of 4 seconds by lap 22 earlier than returning to the pits to finish his necessary cease.
Because the observe started to dry out within the closing phases, the previous manufacturing unit Audi driver was unchallenged on the entrance, taking the chequered with a 2.5s result in rejoice his first DTM win since final yr’s Pink Bull Ring spherical.
Engel completed one other 4 seconds away from Preining, who benefitted from a botched pitstop for Thiim that dropped the Dane to eighth on the end.
Engel’s team-mate Lucas Auer completed a stable fourth, having made up a variety of locations because of some speedy pitwork by the Winward crew, whereas Feller took fifth regardless of dropping out an enormous chunk of time within the preliminary spherical of pitstops.
Sheldon van der Linde dragged his Schubert BMW from twelfth on the grid to a stable sixth place, overcoming a long-lap penalty for an unsafe launch that dropped him again right down to thirteenth.
Maini ended up seventh on the end, regardless of being the primary of the frontrunners to pit when the rain first hit the observe, as Thiim likewise took a disappointing eighth-place end after working strongly early on.
The highest 10 was accomplished by GRT Lamborghini’s Christian Engelhart and Luca Stolz, each recovering from penalties associated to pitstop infringements.
Manufacturing facility Lamborghini driver Mirko Bortolotti gambled on slick tyres in an impressed name because the observe started to quickly dry out within the closing phases of the race, with the additional grip from the non-grooved rubber permitting him to rise from final place with lower than 20 minutes remaining to eleventh on the end.
Maximilian Paul (Paul Lamborghini), Marco Wittmann (Schubert BMW), Luca Engstler (GRT Lamborghini) and Ayhancan Guven (Manthey EMA Porsche) accomplished the points-scorers, the last-named crossing the ending line with a left-rear puncture on his 911 GT3 R.