Red Bull’s Liam Lawson became the first repeat race winner of the 2021 DTM season as he fended off an attack from Maximilian Gotz to take victory at the Red Bull Ring on Saturday.
The result thrusts the New Zealander back into title contention following two non-scores at the Nurburgring last time out.
Lawson started on pole and got a clean start to lead into Turn 1 and immediately opened up a one-second lead by the end of the second lap.
With Gotz holding the gap, he went for a undercut on his rival on Lap 7. A quick six-second stop by his HRT team wasn’t enough though and by the time Lawson pitted on the following lap and rejoined, he had retained the lead in his Ferrari.
But the challenge wasn’t over as Gotz closed in on Lawson in the final laps, partly thanks to traffic ahead, but it wasn’t enough and Lawson would take the chequered flag by just one second to the Mercedes driver.
That gave the 19-year-old his first win since the season-opening race in Monza and puts him third in the standings, behind Gotz and leader Kelvin van der Linde, who finished fifth, behind Philip Ellis and Alex Albon.
Ellis never looked likely to challenge the leading duo and finished 12 seconds behind, but the fight for the final podium spot was an intense one. Eighth on the grid Albon worked his way through the field before he and Van der Linde both challenged for the position.
Albon attempted a pass on Ellis at Turn 6 before running wide. He and Van der Linde would make slight contact as a result with the duo only split by half a second as they crossed the finish line.
GetSpeed’s Arjun Maini secured sixth ahead of BMW’s Marco Wittmann and Mercedes’ Lucas Auer, as Vincent Abril and Timo Glock completed the top ten.
| # | Driver | Car | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Liam Lawson | Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 | |
| 2 | Maximilian Götz | Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 1.007 |
| 3 | Philip Ellis | Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 12.939 |
| 4 | Alex Albon | Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 | 14.282 |
| 5 | Kelvin van der Linde | Audi R8 LMS Evo | 14.829 |
| 6 | Arjun Maini | Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 15.196 |
| 7 | Marco Wittmann | BMW M6 GT3 | 15.543 |
| 8 | Lucas Auer | Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 17.007 |
| 9 | Vincent Abril | Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 19.744 |
| 10 | Timo Glock | BMW M6 GT3 | 22.160 |
| 11 | Daniel Juncadella | Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 23.204 |
| 12 | Maximilian Buhk | Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 25.600 |
| 13 | Paul Maximilian | Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo | 29.458 |
| 14 | Esteban Muth | BMW M6 GT3 | 29.985 |
| 15 | Mike Rockenfeller | Audi R8 LMS Evo | 38.175 |
| 16 | Esmee Hawkey | Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo | 39.412 |
| 17 | Sophia Flörsch | Audi R8 LMS Evo | 1’07.168 |
| 18 | Nico Müller | Audi R8 LMS Evo | 7 Laps |
| 19 | Dev Gore | Audi R8 LMS Evo | 23 Laps |
| 20 | Sheldon Van Der Linde | BMW M6 GT3 | 29 Laps |
