2022 DTM Lausitzring: Start time, how to watch and more

Grasser Lamborghini driver Mirko Bortolotti leads the standings after finishing third in both of the opening two races in Portugal last month.

The Italian took pole for the opening race and looked set to convert it to victory until his car suffered an electrical glitch at a restart and dropped him down the order before staging a strong comeback as Lucas Auer (HTP Winward Mercedes) opened his account for the year.

Nico Muller then took his and Team Rosberg’s long-awaited first victory of the DTM’s GT3 era in race two, the Audi ace leading series newcomer Felipe Fraga (Red Bull Ferrari) and Bortolotti to the flag having started on pole.

Both Muller and Auer have a DNF to their names from the opening weekend – the former retiring from race one due to damage resulting from a puncture, while Auer was forced out of race two when a defective air gun meant his wheel wasn’t mounted correctly during his pitstop – allowing the consistent Bortolotti to lead the standings on 35 points.

The Italian won at Lausitzring in ADAC GT Masters in 2017, but will have a very different challenge in store for him this weekend as the DTM utilises the 8.7-degree banked Turn 1 configuration of the Klettwitz track – which twice hosted the CART Indycar series in 2001 and 2003 – for the second time.

Start action

Photo by: Alexander Trienitz

Last year’s two races on the banked layout were both won by Mercedes drivers. Auer’s HTP Winward team-mate Philip Ellis took advantage of a superb restart in the first race to move up from sixth to second before passing Sheldon van der Linde’s BMW late on.

Eventual 2021 champion Maxi Gotz (HRT Mercedes) then won the second race, but only after a brief stall delayed early leader Liam Lawson’s Ferrari and Kelvin van