Team orders crown Gotz, Lawson denied
DTM
NORISRING (DEU) 9-10 OCTOBER ROUND 8/8
Mercedes’ Maximilian Gotz emerged as champion in the DTM’S first season featuring GT3 cars after team orders decided the fate of the title in what was a controversial final race at the Norisring.
Heading into the last round, Gotz was at best an outside contender for the drivers’ crown. He faced a 26-point deficit to tabletopper Liam Lawson, with 56 up for grabs across the weekend. A stunning victory from fifth on the grid in Saturday’s opening encounter in his Hrt-run Mercedes-amg GT3 did keep his faint title hopes alive, but Lawson and Audi star Kelvin van der Linde remained the primary challengers. Lawson had qualified his AF Corse Ferrari on pole from van der Linde, survived a lunge from the Abt Audi at the start, and went on to be narrowly defeated to second by Arjun Maini’s Getspeed Mercedes, with van der Linde claiming fourth.
Once again it was Lawson on pole from van der Linde on Sunday, but three key events over the course of the hour-long race turned the tables in Gotz’s favour. The first major twist took place at the start, with van der Linde trying to take advantage of the long run to the hairpin to find a way past Lawson. The South African misjudged the braking for the second race in succession, hitting Lawson at the apex. The contact dealt severe damage to the suspension of the Kiwi’s Ferrari 488, and he tumbled to the rear of the pack after making two unscheduled pitstops.
Van der Linde didn’t exactly emerge unscathed from the incident either and dropped to third place, before having to serve a five-second penalty at his pitstop for cutting the hairpin after the start. This meant he returned to the track just ahead of Gotz, but was handicapped by cold tyres on his Audi. When Gotz tried to make a move, van der Linde cut across the asphalt to hold onto third, taking a hit to the rear-left of his car. This would lead to a puncture and ended his hopes of adding a DTM title to his previous successes in ADAC GT Masters.
Gotz was now the only title contender running inside the points in third, behind fellow Mercedes drivers Lucas Auer and Philip Ellis. Had they all finished in the same positions, Lawson would have still won the title by seven points. But Mercedes pulled the trigger with the end of the race in sight, asking Team Winward pair Auer and Ellis to slow down to allow Gotz into the lead. Auer had been running 12s clear of Gotz on lap 60 of 67, but when Mercedes elected to enforce team orders he duly obliged, sensationally handing the lead to the 35-year-old at the start of the 64th lap. This was the third and final piece in the puzzle, helping Gotz overturn a 22-point pre-race deficit into a three-point lead to clinch the title on his return to the series.
Lawson limped home 24 laps down in his damaged Ferrari and pointed the finger squarely at van der Linde for the openinglap clash that would ultimately deny him the championship honours.
GT WORLD CHALLENGE EUROPE ENDURANCE CUP BARCELONA (ESP) 10 OCTOBER
ROUND 5/5
Raffaele Marciello, Felipe Fraga and
Jules Gounon dominated the GT World Challenge Europe season finale in their ASP Mercedes-amg GT3 at Barcelona, while it was the Iron Lynx Ferrari team that wrapped up the Endurance Cup drivers’ title by a mere four points.
Relative outsiders coming into the weekend, the ASP crew was virtually unbeatable throughout the event, but seventh place in the three-hour race for the Ferrari 488 trio of Alessandro Pier Guidi, Come Ledogar and Nicklas Nielsen was enough for a well-deserved crown.
“It was one of the most difficult stints of my career,” Pier Guidi said. “But in the end, we put it all together and extracted the maximum from our car.”
Mercedes topped the times in free practice and pre-qualifying, but it was once again the FFF Racing Lamborghini Huracan of Mirko Bortolotti, Andrea Caldarelli and Marco Mapelli that set the combined fastest time in qualifying. That was until the car was slapped with a three-place grid penalty for a yellowflag infringement while Caldarelli was at the wheel in Q3, thus promoting the ASP Mercedes to pole.
Marciello duly led off the rolling start from the GPX Racing Porsche of Earl Bamber, with Mapelli moving up a place to third as the field navigated the first lap. The opening quarter of an hour was punctuated by various incidents, with
Ram Racing’s Sam De Haan causing a brief safety car intervention after spinning his Mercedes off at Turn 12 and almost taking the Pro-am title-contending Barwell Lamborghini of Miguel Ramos with him.
The order at the front remained stable approaching the end of the first hour, and Mapelli and the Toksport WRT Mercedes of Luca Stolz pitted early for their first stops, while Marciello and Bamber stayed out.
The early dive for the pits paid off – the pair closed the gap to Bamber’s co-driver Mathieu Jaminet after the Porsche came in for its service, but the Lambo was soon effectively ruled out of victory contention when Caldarelli was handed a drivethrough penalty for tapping the Rinaldi Ferrari of Manuel Lauck into a spin at Turn 5.
Fraga had taken over the reins of the leading Mercedes and was untroubled during his stint. By the time he handed over to Gounon, the lead gap had extended to more than 25s over Jaminet’s Porsche, which was hit with a drivethrough for a pitstop infringement and dropped to 10th by the finish.
The final hour was interrupted twice by full-course yellows, which threatened to derail ASP’S run. But Gounon was never truly challenged on his way to victory from the Dinamic Motorsport Porsche of Matteo Cairoli, Christian Engelhart and Klaus Bachler, with Dries Vanthoor bringing the WRT Audi home third.
In the Silver Cup class, Emil Frey Racing Lamborghini trio Alex Fontana, Rolf Ineichen and Ricardo Feller added the drivers’ and teams’ titles to the squad’s equivalent overall and Sprint Cup crowns in the division, capping a superb season.