SPORTSCAR

New Zealander Nick Cassidy took his maiden race win in DTM. The 28-year-old Ferrari driver from the Red Bull AlphaTauri AF Corse team always came out on top in the Sunday race at the Spa-Francorchamps Grand Prix circuit in extremely exciting two-way battles at the front of the field. Having started from third place on the grid, Cassidy emerged as the delighted race winner from Sheldon van der Linde with the Schubert BMW and Thomas Preining with the KÜS Team Bernhard Porsche. South African Sheldon van der Linde got his race off to a good start, immediately overtook pole-sitter René Rast (ABT Sportsline Audi) and led the field until he came in for his mandatory pit stop at the end of lap nine. During his stop, there was an issue with the left front wheel, extending it to over eleven seconds and costing him the lead. Subsequently, Nick Cassidy had to work had on several occasions to defend the lead.

With a lights-to-flag victory, Dennis Olsen secured his maiden win in his still fresh DTM career with the SSR Performance Porsche. In qualifying in the morning, the Norwegian had secured the best starting grid position with a lap time of 2m 30.488s. After a pair of second places at Norisring and Nürburgring, it is the long-awaited maiden DTM race win for Olsen. Classified second and third respectively, reigning DTM champion Maximilian Götz (GER, Mercedes-AMG Team WINWARD) and Olsen’s fellow Porsche driver Thomas Preining (KÜS Team Bernhard) joined him on the podium. Götz had started from fourth on the grid and was able to make up two places over the race distance of 50 minutes plus one lap to score his first podium finish of the season. Austrian Thomas Preining had good chances of victory following a good qualifying result in second place, but temporarily dropped back to ninth following contact and a spin on the opening lap, then still claimed back third place. The second DTM race at Spa-Francorchamps gets underway on Sunday at 1.30pm CEST.