Mercedes-AMG Junior Driver Tom Kalender finished second in Sunday’s DTM race at the Nürburgring, the first podium of the 18-year-old’s career in the series. The result came from eleventh on the grid and was the high point of an otherwise costly weekend for Mercedes-AMG, which lost two cars in a first-lap collision. Maro Engel still leads the drivers’ standings with two rounds to run.
The sixth round of the 2026 DTM season took the series to the Eifel, and it produced a career first for the youngest driver on the grid.
A first podium for the DTM’s youngest driver
Tom Kalender lined up eleventh for Sunday’s race and moved forward steadily in a clean run to second place for Mercedes-AMG Team Landgraf. It is the first DTM podium for the 18-year-old German, described by the series and by Mercedes-AMG as the youngest driver ever to compete in the DTM.
“That was a mega day today. My first DTM podium – it just feels amazing. I haven’t always been lucky this season, I’ve had to take a lot of setbacks and retirements, some of them through no fault of my own. That makes standing here in second place today all the better. I’d like to thank my whole Team Landgraf and Mercedes-AMG.” — Tom Kalender, Mercedes-AMG Team Landgraf #84
First-lap contact ends two AMG races
Lucas Auer started seventh, made a strong getaway and picked up several places, but a first-lap collision with Maro Engel ended the race for both Mercedes-AMG drivers. Engel took responsibility for the incident afterwards, apologising to Auer and to Kelvin van der Linde, whose race also ended there, as well as to the Mercedes-AMG Team RAVENOL crew.
Thomas Jäger, Sporting Manager DTM at Mercedes-AMG Motorsport, called the day a mixture of the best and the worst outcomes, praising Kalender’s composure in the closing stages while describing the double retirement and a penalty for Jules Gounon as the worst case from the team’s point of view.
Pole and a lap record, then a pit-lane penalty
Gounon had set the weekend’s headline lap earlier on Sunday, taking pole position in around 20°C (68°F) with a 1:25.062 that also stood as a new lap record. It was the second pole for the French driver, who competes under an Andorran licence, in a 30th DTM start. The race went the other way: a pit-lane speeding infringement forced a penalty lap, and the finish came in 14th.
Saturday delivered the points
All four Mercedes-AMG drivers qualified well for Saturday’s race — Auer third, Engel sixth, Gounon seventh and Kalender ninth. Kalender’s race ended on lap seven after contact for which the team says the driver was not responsible; the Mercedes-AMG GT3 #84 lost a significant amount of power as a result.
Auer dropped two positions on the outside line into Turn 1 at the start and came home fifth, while Engel and Gounon each held their starting positions to the flag.
Where the championships stand
Despite the Sunday retirement, Engel still leads the drivers’ standings on 160 points, narrowly ahead of the field. Mercedes-AMG Team Winward Racing tops the teams’ table with 231 points, and Mercedes-AMG heads the manufacturers’ standings with 328 points.
The weekend also carried an amendment from Oschersleben on 26 July: after the disqualification of the original winner, Engel was declared the winner of that Sunday race and picked up five additional championship points. That promotion meant carrying 20 kilograms (44 lb) of success ballast into Saturday’s Nürburgring race instead of 10 kilograms (22 lb). Auer, Gounon and Kalender each moved up one position in the revised classification.
What it means
With Mercedes-AMG leading all three championship tables, the Nürburgring weekend cost points but not the overall position. For Kalender, a second place in a first season alongside several retirements marks a step forward for a driver still in the early stages of a DTM career.
The penultimate round of the 2026 DTM season takes place at the Sachsenring from 11 to 13 September.
Source: media.mercedes-benz.com