BMW driver Marco Wittmann has taken his first DTM win of the season and the 20th of his career, sweeping up big points at the Nürburgring with a Saturday podium and a Sunday victory. The result lifts the two-time champion to fifth in the standings, 25 points off the lead with four races left. Team-mate Kelvin van der Linde had the opposite weekend, retiring from both races.
Marco Wittmann has turned the third-to-last DTM weekend of the season into the strongest result of his year. Driving the #11 Schaeffler BMW M4 GT3 EVO for Schubert Motorsport at the Nürburgring, the German finished third on Saturday and won on Sunday — his first DTM victory since Zandvoort in 2024, and the 20th of his career.
A weekend built on qualifying
Wittmann set up both results in qualifying, taking fourth and sixth on the grid for the two races. That gave him something to work with on Saturday, where third place brought a useful points haul. Sunday was the bigger prize: a race BMW describes as strategically perfect, backed by strong pit stops from the Schubert Motorsport crew.
The win was not comfortable. Wittmann was under sustained pressure late on from Thomas Preining and Tom Kalender, the latter significantly quicker on fresh tyres.
“The victory on Sunday was hard-fought in the end. Thomas Preining and Tom Kalender put me under a lot of pressure. Luckily for me, Thomas was a good buffer to Tom in the final laps, as Tom was much faster on new tyres,” Wittmann said.
Back in the championship picture
The two results move Wittmann to fifth in the drivers’ standings on 135 points, 25 behind the championship leader. With four races still to run, that puts a third DTM title back within mathematical reach for a driver who won the series in 2014 and 2016. In the teams’ championship, Schubert Motorsport sits third on 201 points, 30 off the top.
“We knew that if we wanted to get back into the title fight after the recent difficult races, we would need very strong results at the Nürburgring,” said Andreas Roos, Head of BMW M Motorsport. “His combination of driving skill and experience makes him a hot title contender.”
Team principal Torsten Schubert framed it more cautiously: “Thanks to all the points, we at least have a theoretical chance in the title race again.”
Nothing at all for van der Linde
The other side of the BMW garage had a weekend to forget. Kelvin van der Linde retired his #3 Shell BMW M4 GT3 EVO from Saturday’s race with a technical problem, then was caught up in a start-line accident on Sunday through no fault of his own — two retirements from two starts.
“To put it mildly, the weekend was a disaster,” the South African said. “I still have four races left to finish the season properly.” Roos noted that van der Linde had also shown podium pace across the weekend, but that his season has been dogged by bad luck.
What it means
A 25-point deficit with four races remaining is a real gap rather than a formality, and Wittmann still has four drivers ahead of him. But the Nürburgring weekend does what BMW needed it to do: it keeps the manufacturer in a championship conversation it was drifting out of, and it ends a two-year victory drought for one of the DTM’s most experienced drivers.
The DTM season continues with four races remaining.
Source: www.press.bmwgroup.com