Franck Perera took victory in the first DTM race of the season at Oschersleben, both his and Lamborghini’s first race of the season.
Perera led the race off the line from pole and dominated, never looking likely to lose the lead to his rivals. He pitted late into the race, meaning he had fresher tyres than those behind him.
The Frenchman finished 7.7 seconds ahead of Tim Heinemann in second, with the Toksport Porsche driver making his way through from seventh on the grid to take a podium on his DTM debut. At one point he looked like the win might be in store, but Perera used his fresher tyres to his advantage to pull away from the German two-time DTM Trophy winner.
Jack Aitken took the final spot on the podium, also on his DTM debut, as well as the Ferrari 296 GT3s DTM debut, for Emil Frey Racing. The British-Korean driver started second on the grid but lost that to Perera’s SSR Performance Lamborghini teammate Mirko Bortolotti. This dropped him to third, but he then also lost that to Abt Sportsline Audi’s Ricardo Feller, meaning he ended the first couple of laps in fourth.
This meant Emil Frey brought Aitken in earlier than many of those around him, in order to try and jump his rivals and take the spot on the podium back again. He was for a while the leader amongst the growing number of those who had stopped, but was then jumped by the rapid Heinemann, who slotted in ahead of the Ferrari.
When the leaders, Perera and Bortolotti, stopped, Aitken and Heinemann weren’t able to jump them. Bortolotti then dropped back and finished eighth, while Perera extended his lead over Heinemann once his tyres were warmed up.
With Heinemann and Aitken filling out the podium, Feller finished fourth, having been jumped by Aitken at the stops. Feller ran in the podium positions at the start but dropped to fifth after his pitstop, also being leapfrogged by Rene Rast. Feller, though, was able to find his way past Rast for fourth place.
Rast then finished fifth in his first DTM race for BMW and his new team, Schubert. Feller’s teammate Kelvin van der Linde finished sixth for Abt Sportsline Audi, while Laurin Heinrich took seventh for Team Bernhard Porsche.
Bortolotti finished eighth after dropping back from second, and an SSR Performance Lamborghini 1-2, after the stops. In ninth was Christian Engelhart in the sister Toksport Porsche, while Dennis Olsen rounded out the top 10 in the Manthey Porsche.
