Three-time DTM champion Rene Rast held off Porsche rival Thomas Preining to claim victory in the second race at the Red Bull Ring, as Mirko Bortolotti extended his championship lead.
Boosted by an overnight Balance of Performance change, factory BMW driver Rast qualified third on the grid in Austria and moved up to second by the end of the opening stint.
A combination of a rapid pitstop from the Schubert crew and an overcut propelled him to the lead at the midway point of the race, which he converted into a second win of 2024 after fending off a late charge from Preining.
At the start, Saturday winner Bortolotti pulled away cleanly from pole position in his SSR Performance Lamborghini, while a failed attempt at passing Luca Engstler for second dropped Rast behind the Porsche of Preining.
The order at the front remained unchanged until Preining tried to overtake Engstler on lap 11, only to allow Rast to settle the score and repass him into Turn 8.
Rast then cleared Engstler two laps later when the Grasser Lamborghini driver ran wide at Turn 3, with Preining also dispatching the 24-year-old shortly afterwards.
When the pit window opened after 20 minutes of racing, Preining was the first of the frontrunners to complete his mandatory pitstop, with Bortolotti and Rast following him on successive laps.
Schubert was able to service Rast’s car in under seven seconds, which combined with the strength of the overcut at the Red Bull Ring, allowed the German driver to seize the net lead.
Mirko Bortolotti, SSR Performance Lamborghini Huracán EVO GT3
Photo by: Alexander Trienitz
Shortly afterwards, Preining overtook Bortolotti on track for second with a textbook pass on Turn 3, laying the foundation to a tense duel between him and Rast.
What was a comfortable three-second advantage for Rast quickly began to disappear, as Preining started hunting down the German for his first victory since the second round at the Lausitzring in May.
With a quarter of the race to go, Rast appeared to have done enough to stave off the reigning champion, but Preining again came back at him in the closing stages.
Ultimately, the BMW driver was able to keep Preining at bay with a winning margin of just 0.6s.
Third place went to the HRT Mercedes of Arjun Maini, who celebrated a double podium at the Red Bull Ring after emerging on top in an epic three-way battle with Schubert’s Sheldon van der Linde and Preining’s team-mate Aynchan Guven on the straight between Turn 3 and 4.
Maini was one of a handful of drivers to delay his mandatory stop until the end of the pit window, allowing him to demote polesitter Bortolotti to fourth.
The Italian, however, still returned from the race with a bigger lead in the championship, with his nearest rival and Abt driver Kelvin van der Linde finishing just behind him in fifth.
As was the case on Saturday, the South African was held back by a poor qualifying and could only recover a top-five finish after starting the race from 11th.
Kelvin van der Linde, Team ABT Sportsline Audi R8 LMS GT3
Photo by: Alexander Trienitz
His brother Sheldon van der Linde was classified sixth ahead of Manthey EMA’s Guven, who reported damage on his Porsche after going halfway over the grass in his battle with Maini and the younger van der Linde.
Maro Engel was the only finisher for the Winward Mercedes team in eighth after his team-mate Lucas Auer stopped at the start/finish straight with seven minutes to go with a mechanical problem.
The top 10 was rounded off by Grasser Lamborghini’s Frank Perera and Emil Frey Ferrari driver Jack Aitken.
Engstler, who battled for second with Rast and Preining early on, eventually retired from the race with a gear issue.
DTM Red Bull Ring Race Results to follow…