Sheldon van der Linde beat his brother Kelvin to the win in race 1 of the DTM round from the Nurburgring.
This marks not only the first South African 1-2 in DTM history, but the first 1-2 for a pair of brothers in the German championship.
Mirko Bortolotti started the race, delayed for over three hours because of heavy fog surrounding the circuit, but lost the lead to Felipe Fraga. The two battled for the lead for a while, before pitting and resuming the lead. However, their battle came to the end after Bortilotti sent it up the inside at the final corner, nudging Fraga’s Ferrari into a spin, ending up in the gravel on driver’s left.
This put both cars out and left the way open for S. van der Linde to take the win in front of his brother.
Ricardo Feller’s and Maximillian Gotz’s battle didn’t end until the final lap, with the Audi driver winning out over Gotz in the Mercedes-AMG, taking the final podium place. In fifth was Lucas Auer, with Philipp Eng sixth and Nick Cassidy seventh.
Eng and Cassidy, along with Rene Rast, who finished ninth, had a contact-filled battle in the final few minutes of the race, with Eng managing to keep both Cassidy and Rast behind him despite huge pressure. Rast came off worst, with damage to his Audi meaning he slipped back to ninth, behind Marco Wittmann in eighth, in the closing laps.
Closing out the top 10 and taking the final championship point was Mikael Grenier, beating Maxi Buhk and Clemens Schmid.
| # | Driver | Team | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sheldon Van Der Linde | BMW M4 GT3 | |
| 2 | Kelvin van der Linde | Audi R8 LMS Evo II | 1.928 |
| 3 | Ricardo Feller | Audi R8 LMS Evo II | 8.432 |
| 4 | Maximilian Götz | Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 8.884 |
| 5 | Lucas Auer | Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 11.151 |
| 6 | Philipp Eng | BMW M4 GT3 | 18.473 |
| 7 | Nick Cassidy | Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 | 19.120 |
| 8 | Marco Wittmann | BMW M4 GT3 | 19.553 |
| 9 | René Rast | Audi R8 LMS Evo II | 20.968 |
| 10 | Mikael Grenier | Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 21.913 |
| 11 | Maximilian Buhk | Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 22.322 |
| 12 | Clemens Schmid | Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo | 22.797 |
| 13 | Esteban Muth | BMW M4 GT3 | 24.197 |
| 14 | Marius Zug | Audi R8 LMS Evo II | 25.822 |
| 15 | Arjun Maini | Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 26.417 |
| 16 | Maro Engel | Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 27.860 |
| 17 | Luca Stolz | Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 28.352 |
| 18 | Rolf Ineichen | Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo | 29.390 |
| 19 | Theo Oeverhaus | BMW M4 GT3 | 47.379 |
| 20 | Alessio Deledda | Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo | 48.233 |
| Felipe Fraga | Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 | 5 Laps |
