Sheldon van der Linde wins Saturday’s race at the Nürburgring to return to the top of the drivers’ standings.
At the fifth race weekend of the DTM season, Sheldon van der Linde (RSA) announced his return from the summer break with a perfect result at the Nürburgring (GER). On Saturday, the Schubert Motorsport driver in the #31 BMW M4 GT3 celebrated his third win of the season to return to the top of the drivers’ standings. He claimed pole position on Sunday but dropped back to ninth in the race after a safety car period. With 110 points, van der Linde is now 21 points ahead of his closest challenger. Philipp Eng (AUT) finished sixth on Saturday to score points for himself and his team. Schubert Motorsport remains at the top of the team standings with 149 points.
Sheldon van der Linde wins Saturday’s race at the Nürburgring to return to the top of the drivers’ standings.
After heavy fog caused the cancellation of the qualifying session, Sheldon van der Linde started Saturday’s race from second place, corresponding to his position in the championship. Drivers had to wait for visibility to improve before starting the race late in the afternoon and van der Linde benefited from a collision between the two leading cars on his way to victory. He crossed the finish line ahead of his brother Kelvin van der Linde (RSA, Audi) to record another first; two brothers had never previously claimed the top two spots on a DTM podium.
On Sunday, they picked up where they had left off. Sheldon van der Linde secured pole position ahead of his brother to score another three points. At the start of the race, he was in the lead with team-mate Philipp Eng behind him, having moved up from fifth to second thanks to an outstanding start. However, a safety car period then threw the field into disarray as all drivers made their mandatory pit stops. Both Schubert Motorsport drivers fell back some way and Eng then retired after a collision. Van der Linde finished ninth, scoring two points.
Walkenhorst Motorsport endured a tough weekend. Marco Wittmann (GER) finished eighth on Saturday to chalk up some points. On Sunday, an unscheduled trip across the grass during the restart after the safety car period knocked him a long way back and he was unable to improve on tenth place, scoring one point. Esteban Muth (BEL) finished in 13th and 16th positions. 17-year-old Theo Oeverhaus (GER) made a guest appearance in a third Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW M4 GT3, becoming the youngest DTM driver of all time. He crossed the finish line in 19th position in both races.
