The 24-year-old from Linz shone with two third places at the German Touring Car Masters (DTM) in Spa-Francorchamps. And that despite the fact that the race weekend had started with a moment of shock. “I’m happy to be sitting here in one piece,” said Preining after a collision with Lucas Auer immediately after the start of the first run. The Upper Austrian was just able to catch his escaping Porsche 911 with a class maneuver and prevent a failure.
Despite this, the situation was extremely dangerous. “It’s never nice when you’re standing sideways in Eau Rouge and 25 cars come along. A lot has happened in such situations,” said Preining, who was accompanied by a few guardian angels, aware of the great danger.
The Porsche works driver, who had set the best time in the first Spa practice session, kept his head cool and started to catch up. “It’s really nice to be back on the podium,” said a delighted Preining (KÜS Team Bernhard), who triumphed in his DTM maiden season on July 2 at the Norisring in Nuremberg. There are already three podium finishes – in Spa there were two within 24 hours. That’s something to be proud of.
Preining moved up to seventh place in the DTM classification – 49 points behind the leading South African Sheldon van der Linde (BMW M4), who yesterday in second place was beaten by New Zealand’s debut winner Nick Cassidy in the Ferrari by just 68 hundredths of a second.
Lucas Auer – out on Saturday with a puncture – had to settle for fourth place on his 28th birthday yesterday, which is a setback in the title race. Four races before the end, the Tyrolean in second place is separated by 32 points from Van der Linde. “In this championship you have to deliver all the time, I already promise an attack in Spielberg,” said Auer.
Source: Nachrichten
