In June 2011, the DTM, the German Touring Car Masters, opened the then new Red Bull Ring. It was to take more than eleven years before an Austrian finally entered the list of winners in Styria in the internationally strong racing series. Linz’s Thomas Preining, of all people, managed it yesterday, skilfully dancing out the opposition in his Porsche in the Spielberg rain.
In addition to the many thousands of spectators at the ring, former MotoGP world champion Jorge Lorenzo applauded enthusiastically as a guest in the pits of the Porsche Bernhard team from Preining. And his deceased mentor Walter Lechner Sr. must have been happy in heaven too.
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Preining delivered a brilliant performance from seventh on the grid. “Visibility was extremely poor, I drove around the back. At the beginning it was just important to me that the car stays in one place. When it finally got better, I started to overtake,” said the 24-year-old about his strategy. On lap 16 he overtook pole position man Maro Engel. Then the routine from many years in the motorsport business also helped him. Preining decided to stay on rain tires on the drying track: “And I think that was a good decision for us.” After his pit stop, Preining, who won his first DTM race at the Norisring in July, didn’t give up and was celebrated as the big winner after 35 laps ahead of Luca Stolz. The red-white-red national anthem was played for the first time at the award ceremony. “Winning at home is a special honor. In this series it’s closer than anywhere else,” said the works driver.
It was probably also a bit of anger in my stomach that accelerated Preining. In the first race on Saturday, he fought a remarkable duel with Nico Müller, for which he received a ten-second penalty from race control. This was later withdrawn, Preining kept fifth place. “The penalty was an absolute joke,” said the man from Linz.
Now fully in the title fight
Now he’s even fighting for the DTM title at the finale in Hockenheim (October 7th to 9th) in two weeks’ time. The Tyrolean Lucas Auer (Mercedes), fourth in Spielberg and sixth yesterday with a super finish thanks to late fitted slicks, is only eleven points behind the leading Sheldon van der Linde (130). Rene Rast (117), Preining (116) and Mirko Bortolotti (112) from Vienna could still win the championship. (free)
Source: Nachrichten
