{"id":1769,"date":"2026-07-26T08:15:55","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T08:15:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/?p=1769"},"modified":"2026-07-26T08:15:57","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T08:15:57","slug":"preining-rules-day-1-at-oschersleben-pole-position-and-lights-to-flag-victory-in-race-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/preining-rules-day-1-at-oschersleben-pole-position-and-lights-to-flag-victory-in-race-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Preining Rules Day 1 at Oschersleben: Pole Position and Lights-to-Flag Victory in Race 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Motorsport Arena Oschersleben<\/strong> \u2014 The ninth race of the DTM season belonged entirely to Thomas Preining. The 2023 DTM champion produced a commanding performance in his Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R, snatching pole position in Qualifying 1 before leading from start to finish to secure his second win of the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Qualifying 1: Preining Sets the Benchmark<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Saturday morning set the tone for a dominant day by the Austrian driver. Building on his top form from Friday&#8217;s free practice sessions, Preining put together a flawless lap around the tight, 3.696-kilometer circuit near Magdeburg to claim pole position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Starting from the front row alongside Preining was Luca Engstler in the Red Bull Team Abt Lamborghini, with Mercedes-AMG driver Maro Engel lining up right behind in third.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Race 1 Highlights: Pit Stop Precision and Tactical Mastery<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When the lights went out, Preining launched cleanly into Turn 1 to defend his lead. Behind him, Maro Engel made an aggressive start, getting past Engstler into second place early on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The narrow, twisty layout of Oschersleben makes overtaking notoriously difficult, placing heavy importance on strategy and traffic management. Preining gradually built a two-second lead before the mandatory pit-stop window opened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Key Developments:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>The Pit Window (Lap 21):<\/strong> Preining and Engel pitted simultaneously on lap 21. A swift, mistake-free tire change from Manthey Racing saw Preining return smoothly to the lead, while a slightly slower stop for Engel dropped him behind Engstler.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Engstler\u2019s Late Charge:<\/strong> On fresh rubber, Luca Engstler pushed hard in the closing stages, trimming Preining&#8217;s lead down to 1.601 seconds. However, Preining kept his cool in heavy lapped traffic to take the checkered flag after 40 laps.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Championship Shake-up:<\/strong> Maro Engel crossed the line in third to round out the podium, earning crucial points that elevated him to the top of the DTM drivers&#8217; championship standings. Meanwhile, former points leader Nicki Thiim endured a tough afternoon and retired on lap 18 due to cockpit heat issues.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>&#8220;Getting the timing of your pit stop right is vital in Oschersleben, because you soon find yourself amongst cars being lapped on this narrow track,&#8221;<\/em> Preining reflected after taking his ninth career DTM victory. <em>&#8220;Luca was closing in on me all the time in the closing stages, so I had to remain totally focused.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/DTM_R1_ResultList_1.0_Oschersleben.pdf\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/DTM_R1_ResultList_1.0_Oschersleben.pdf\">RESULTS<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Motorsport Arena Oschersleben \u2014 The ninth race of the DTM season belonged entirely to Thomas Preining. The 2023 DTM champion produced a commanding performance in his Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R, snatching pole position in Qualifying 1 before leading from start to finish to secure his second win of the season. Qualifying 1: Preining Sets [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1771,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[88],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dtm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1769"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1772,"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1769\/revisions\/1772"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}