DTM

DTM: Maxi Goetz dominates at Norisring as Lawson edges closer to title

Featured image credit: @amgmotorsport official twitter

Maxi Goetz scored his second DTM victory in the penultimate race of the season at the Norisring, while Liam Lawson extended his championship lead.

Arjun Maini finished second in the Team GetSpeed Mercedes despite contact at the start with Red Bull junior Lawson, who finished one place ahead of chief title rival Kelvin van der Linde in third.

After the pair qualified on the front row, Abt Audi driver van der Linde tried to take the lead away from the polesitter Lawson at the first corner but ran wide and lost several places after brushing the wall.

At the same time, Lawson was hit by Maini, allowing Philip Ellis to grab an early lead in his Team Winward Mercedes.

Goetz moved into second early on after passing the AF Ferrari pair of Nick Cassidy and Lawson – the former making his first DTM appearance of the season in place of Alex Albon, who is on reserve driver duty for Red Bull at the Turkish Grand Prix.

After catching fellow Mercedes driver Ellis, Goetz took first place on the 10th lap, and retained the net lead after the lead group made their mandatory pitstops. From there, the German dominated to win by 7.6 seconds.

A quick stop enabled Maini to move into second place ahead of Lawson and the recovering van der Linde, where he remained until the finish.

Waiting until late in the race to make his mandatory stop, Cassidy led and was held back by Van der Linde while trying to lap the South African, with the pair making contact at one stage.

Cassidy emerged just ahead of van der Linde in fourth after pitting, but was passed by the Audi driver late on and took the chequered flag just 0.3s behind in fifth.

Lucas Auer was sixth for Team Winward Mercedes, with Daniel Juncadella (Team Gruppe M Mercedes) and Nico Muller (Team Rosberg Audi) finishing close behind. Maxi Buhk was ninth in a Mercedes, just ahead of Ellis, who slipped back to 10th.

Mike Rockenfeller pulled out of the race early on after suffering damage to his Audi in a lap one collision, and was joined in retirement by BMW driver Sheldon van der Linde and Esmee Hawkey’s Lamborghini.

Lawson leads van der Linde by 18 points heading into Sunday’s finale, while Goetz now sits just one point further behind in third.

Race result (67 laps)

1 Maximilian Götz Mercedes
2 Arjun Maini Mercedes 7.651s
3 Liam Lawson Ferrari 8.043s
4 Kelvin van der Linde Audi 11.678s
5 Nick Cassidy Ferrari 67 11.974s
6 Lucas Auer Mercedes 14.593s
7 Daniel Juncadella Mercedes 15.109s
8 Nico Müller Audi 15.601s
9 Maximilian Buhk Mercedes 24.629s
10 Philip Ellis Mercedes 25.245s
11 Esteban Muth Lamborghini 29.361s
12 Marco Wittmann BMW 29.712s
13 Sophia Flörsch Audi 31.358s
14 Vincent Abril Mercedes 32.163s
15 Lucas di Grassi Audi 3m13.091s
16 Dev Gore Audi +2 laps
17 Timo Glock BMW +6 laps
DNF Esmee Hawkey Lamborghini
DNF S.van der Linde BMW
DNF M.Rockenfeller Audi

Featured image credit: @amgmotorsport official twitter

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