Lucas Auer has taken his sixth DTM career win by holding off Liam Lawson to win the Sunday DTM race in Assen.
The Austrian started the race from pole position in his Team Winward Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo and had a relatively clean run to the flag, although he did face pressure from championship leader Liam Lawson in the closing stages of the race.
Lawson came home to finish the race in second place, with the Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW M6 GT3 of Marco Wittmann completing the podium in third place.
Lawson and Wittmann were both able to score a podium thanks to a late retirement from Daniel Juncadella, who was running third in the final stages when his GruppeM Mercedes stopped on track.
Kelvin van der Linde recovered from a disappointing showing on Saturday to come home in fourth, with Alex Albon completing the top five.
Maximilian Götz finished sixth, with the top ten rounded out by Mirko Bortolotti, Nico Müller, Vincent Abril and Esteban Muth.
Lawson extends championship advantage
Liam Lawson has further widened the gap in the championship standings by finishing ahead of rivals Wittmann and Van der Linde.
The Kiwi enjoyed a strong race from third on the grid.At the start, he challenged Wittmann on the opening lap but instead fell back behind Albon.
He would regain control of the battle during the pitstops, pitting first and utilizing the undercut to surpass both Wittmann and Albon to vault up to second place.
From there, he went on to challenge Auer for the race win, but ultimately had to settle for second.
Lawson now leads the standings with 175 points and four races remaining. He leads Marco Wittmann by ten points and now holds a 15-point advantage over Kelvin van der Linde. Maximilian Götz is still in contention for the championship, but trails Lawson by twenty points.
Van der Linde loses out again
Kelvin van der Linde recovered some of his lost momentum after the disastrous showing on Saturday, but still saw his main title rivals extend their advantages.
The South African started the race from fifth but dropped to eighth at the start. He then employed the same overcut strategy that backfired on Saturday. This time, it allowed him to vault up the field and end up behind Wittmann.
The Audi driver proved unable to use the advantage he had with his fresher Michelin tyres and failed to get by Wittmann. He even collided with the AlphaTauri AF Corse Ferrari of Alex Albon behind, suffering minor bodywork damage.
The Abt Sportsline driver has now gone from leading the standings at the start of the weekend to third and fifteen points behind Lawson with four races left to be run.
| # | Driver | Car | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lucas Auer | Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | |
| 2 | Liam Lawson | Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 | 0.593 |
| 3 | Marco Wittmann | BMW M6 GT3 | 11.456 |
| 4 | Kelvin van der Linde | Audi R8 LMS Evo | 11.957 |
| 5 | Alex Albon | Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 | 12.357 |
| 6 | Maximilian Götz | Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 13.017 |
| 7 | Mirko Bortolotti | Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo | 13.634 |
| 8 | Nico Müller | Audi R8 LMS Evo | 14.014 |
| 9 | Vincent Abril | Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 16.040 |
| 10 | Esteban Muth | BMW M6 GT3 | 20.272 |
| 11 | Mike Rockenfeller | Audi R8 LMS Evo | 23.320 |
| 12 | Philip Ellis | Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 26.608 |
| 13 | Arjun Maini | Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 31.508 |
| 14 | Timo Glock | BMW M6 GT3 | 39.910 |
| 15 | Maximilian Buhk | Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 40.230 |
| 16 | Sophia Flörsch | Audi R8 LMS Evo | 45.649 |
| 17 | Dev Gore | Audi R8 LMS Evo | 48.970 |
| 18 | Christian Klien | McLaren 720S GT3 | 1 Lap |
| 19 | Daniel Juncadella | Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 3 Laps |
| 20 | Sheldon Van Der Linde | BMW M6 GT3 | 8 Laps |
| 21 | Esmee Hawkey | Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo | 14 Laps |
