Kelvin van der Linde took victory in Race 1 of DTM’s double-header at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria, after executing a solid pit-stop strategy amidst changeable conditions.

The ABT Sportsline Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II pilot finished ahead of maiden polesitter Laurin Heinrich in the Team 75 Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3.R and Ricardo Feller in the second ABT Sportsline Audi, who climbed from 26th to third.

The race got underway in damp, greasy conditions, with only a handful of drivers gambling to option for slick tyres, which proved to be a mistake with the damp conditions holding in the early exchanges.

Polesitter Heinrich took the field to green after two formation laps and the Team 75 Motorsport driver held onto the holeshot into the first corner in his Porsche 911 GT3.R.

K. van der Linde challenged Heinrich all the way to Turn 3, but ran deep, falling back as the rest of the runners shuffled, slipped and slid behind the leader.

Heinrich’s teammate Ayhancan Güven managed to cycle through to second in the opening laps, to give the Team75 Motorsport squad an early 1-2.

Thanks to the greasy circuit conditions, there was fighting all the way down the field, with Championship leader Mirko Bortolotti battling in 10th early on and reigning champion Sheldon van der Linde trying to climb through the order to keep himself in contention for this year’s title.

As the field approached the pit-stop window, Heinrich held a three-second lead over Maro Engel’s Mercedes-AMG GT3 and K. van der Linde, who’d battled past Güven, resided in third.

Rene Rast had steered his Schubert Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 ahead of Thomas Preining’s Manthey EMA Porsche and Güven to take fourth, with Preining also passing Güven as the pit window opened and a dry line had started to appear, but rain threatened to intervene again.

And intervene it did as the field kept circulating despite the pit window being open, with rain starting to fall.

Meanwhile, Bortolotti was charging hard, putting two wheels on the gravel to pass Marco Wittmann’s Project 1 BMW for eighth, before dispatching Dennis Olsen’s Manthey Porsche for seventh, as the rain decided to ease with 13 minutes of the pit window remaining.

With 12 minutes of the window remaining, the first few runners headed to pit lane, Marvin Dienst, Jusuf Owega and Luca Stolz being amongst the first to switch tyres, with the latter gambling to take on slicks.

But the front runners continued around the Red Bull Ring – waiting for the opportune moment to pit.

Championship contender Feller chose to switch to slick tyres in his ABT Sportsline Audi with just under 10 minutes of the pit-stop window left to run.

A flurry of midfield runners then gambled to pit for slick tyres, with the the leaders still running out front on wet tyres.

K. van der Linde was the first of the leading pack to head to pit lane and pulling the plug first out of the leading pack would pay dividends with Heinrich, Engel, Rast and Preining pitting a few minutes later and Bortolotti pitting a lap later still.

As the window came to a close, Emil Frey Racing’s Thierry Vermeulen was sent into the gravel in the second-to-last corner by Clemens Schmid, bringing out the Safety Car.

As the field circulated under caution, K. van der Linde had inherited the lead with Heinrich falling to second, Engel third, Preining fourth, Feller fifth and Bortolotti slipping all the way down to ninth in the pit window reshuffle.

The Safety Car came in with just over 13 minutes of the race remaining and K. van der Linde got the perfect restart to streak away.

K. van der Linde maintained his advantage all the way to the chequered flag to take a resounding victory, his first since 2021, ahead of Heinrich and Feller, who completed a remarkable 23-place charge after a late defence against the hard-charging Rast in fourth with the pair swapping places and paintwork on multiple occasions in numerous thrilling exchanges.

Preining pounced on Engel on the penultimate lap to take fifth, with Luca Stolz in the Team HRT Mercedes finishing seventh behind Engel.

Wittmann took eighth, with championship leader Borotlotti finishing ninth, maintaining his championship lead over Preining with a margin of six points.

The top 10 was completed by Olsen in what was an enthralling DTM race in Austria.

The Red Bull Ring has revealed the new-chicane that will be utilised in all future MotoGP races off the back of several near misses at Turn 3 in recent years.

The Austrian venue shared satellite images of the chicane- installed in the middle of the ultra-fast, curved Turn 2 that leads up to the slow Turn 3 right hander – on Wednesday morning ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix in August.

The new section of track is made up of a slow extended chicane that features a curved entry to the new Turn 2 right-hander before a short run into the left-handed Turn 3, with the subsequent run up to the unchanged now Turn 4 now significantly slower than in past outings at the circuit.

The chicane runs parallel with the conventional curved section, meaning all car-based events will continue to use the old layout with only the bike-based racing using the chicane version.

Renowned Formula 1 circuit designer Hermann Tilke was the man who penned the Red Bull Ring’s new section of track, the German having gone through 15 different designs throughout the planning process as a result of the challenging “topography of the terrain.”

“Reduced speed was needed in MotoGP in this section of the track,” said Tilke.  

“This was achieved through the compact right-left combination which refrains from impacting the rest of the track.

“The planning was a real challenge due to the topography of the terrain, above all.” 

The Red Bull Ring began work on the new chicane in November last year in order to be ready for the 2022 edition of the Austrian contest, the decision to add the section coming after a fearsome crash between Franco Morbidelli and Johann Zarco in the 2020 Austrian GP.

The now-riderless machines flew across the infield section on the inside of Turn 3 before subsequently crossing the track after the duo collided on entry to the bend, the lack of the wall meaning the cartwheeling bikes narrowly missed Yamaha pair Maverick Vinales and Valentino Rossi as they navigated the corner, the race being red-flagged as a result.

A wall was erected on the inside of the corner for the following weekend’s Styrian GP at the same venue, though a more permanent change was planned in the months afterwards to try and prevent any future problems at the bend.

The decision was then taken to try and slow the entry for bikes while also preserving the conventional run into the corner for car racing, resulting in the new chicane being built.

Red Bull’s Liam Lawson became the first repeat race winner of the 2021 DTM season as he fended off an attack from Maximilian Gotz to take victory at the Red Bull Ring on Saturday.

The result thrusts the New Zealander back into title contention following two non-scores at the Nurburgring last time out.

Lawson started on pole and got a clean start to lead into Turn 1 and immediately opened up a one-second lead by the end of the second lap.

With Gotz holding the gap, he went for a undercut on his rival on Lap 7. A quick six-second stop by his HRT team wasn’t enough though and by the time Lawson pitted on the following lap and rejoined, he had retained the lead in his Ferrari.

But the challenge wasn’t over as Gotz closed in on Lawson in the final laps, partly thanks to traffic ahead, but it wasn’t enough and Lawson would take the chequered flag by just one second to the Mercedes driver.

That gave the 19-year-old his first win since the season-opening race in Monza and puts him third in the standings, behind Gotz and leader Kelvin van der Linde, who finished fifth, behind Philip Ellis and Alex Albon.

Ellis never looked likely to challenge the leading duo and finished 12 seconds behind, but the fight for the final podium spot was an intense one. Eighth on the grid Albon worked his way through the field before he and Van der Linde both challenged for the position.

Albon attempted a pass on Ellis at Turn 6 before running wide. He and Van der Linde would make slight contact as a result with the duo only split by half a second as they crossed the finish line.

GetSpeed’s Arjun Maini secured sixth ahead of BMW’s Marco Wittmann and Mercedes’ Lucas Auer, as Vincent Abril and Timo Glock completed the top ten.

Red Bull junior Liam Lawson reignited his title hopes by securing pole position for the first race of the DTM weekend at the Red Bull Ring, whilst points leader Kelvin van der Linde starts eighth.

Lawson endured a tough couple of races at the Nurburgring last time out, which saw him drop to fifth in the points standings.

However in Austria, the New Zealander set the pace on Friday and that rolled over to Saturday as he placed his AF Corse Ferrari on pole with a time of 1:27.851 to beat the Mercedes of Maximilian Gotz by just under three tenths.

The session saw pole change hands repeatedly as the track evolved, with Rowe BMW’s Sheldon van der Linde taking the top spot before Arjun Maini pipped him by just 0.001, before dropping to third – his best DTM qualifying position.

But it was Lawson who took the top spot on his final run to snatch pole from Gotz, who also improved late on.

Philip Ellis rounds out the top five, just denying AlphaTauri’s Alex Albon by 0.035s, as the former F1 driver starts sixth ahead of Marco Whittmann and points leader Kelvin van der Linde in the Audi R8 LMS.

The session saw Maximilian Paul crash out on his DTM qualifying debut, but before that he posted a time good enough for 16th, behind his T3 Lamborghini team-mate Esteban Muth.

Jorge Martin revealed he was “scared” after running into severe vibrations under braking en-route to a new lap record and second straight pole at the Red Bull Ring.

Martin banged in a 1:22.643s to once again lower the MotoGP record at the Austrian venue, a time over three-tenths-of-a-second quicker than his then record-breaking tour last weekend for the Styrian Grand Prix, denying series leader Fabio Quartararo by a slender 0.034s.

The Pramac rider achieved this despite having to grab one of the final two pole shootout passages in Q1 after crashing out on his final flyer in Saturday morning’s FP3 session, the Spaniard also revealing that he had to contend with severe vibrations coming from his Desmosedici under braking.

Martin-who also claimed his first career MotoGP victory in the Styrian GP- says that he dealt with a similar problem while chasing pole in Moto3 at Le Mans back in 2018, an experience that allowed him to “keep pushing” to score the third pole of his impressive rookie premier class campaign.

“It was a really complicated day because we had some bad moments and then an impressive qualifying,” said Martin.

“I wasn’t riding comfortably from the start of the day, I felt like a rookie because everything I tried the bike was snaking a lot and I had no rear grip, though still could post competitive times because I was in the top five at one point in FP3 but then when it was time to push I was a bit nervous and lacking a bit of confidence and I crashed.

“This meant I didn’t have a lot of confidence for qualifying, but then we tried many different things for FP4 and we found the solution and as you could see in qualifying I was much more confident and had much better stability under braking.

“I was a bit scared because there were a lot of vibrations from the front, but only on braking, and I remember that I got pole in Moto3 at Le Mans with the same thing so I kept pushing and managed to get the pole.”

The ’18 Moto3 world champion insisted that he is “confident” that he should be in the battle for a second successive win in the Austrian GP, though outlined he was expecting stiff competition from his fellow Ducati riders, reigning MotoGP world champion Joan Mir as well as Quartararo.

“I’m confident for tomorrow, for sure we can see Fabio (Quartararo), Pecco (Bagnaia) and (Johann) Zarco and (Joan) Mir maybe these four riders look strong as do I so we’ll see if we can manage the tyre a bit for the end,” continued Martin.

“I’m living the dream to be in MotoGP and making pole positions and podiums, it’s incredible and I hope to learn a lot tomorrow and finish in the top five.

“I know that’s not very optimistic but as a rookie that’s enough and I don’t want to put a lot of pressure on myself, I think we can fight for the win but if we can’t that’s OK.”

Francesco Bagnaia fired to the fastest time in FP3 for the Austrian Grand Prix, while Styrian GP victor Jorge Martin will have to contest Q1 after crashing towards the end.

Friday form-man Johann Zarco started out as the quickest rider in the early stages of the session with a 1:23.484s tour, the Frenchman marginally ahead of series leader Fabio Quartararo though nearly six-tenths down on his rapid effort from FP1.

Things settled down through the mid-point of the test as the riders elected to instead focus on long-runs ahead of Sunday’s race-making up for time lost in the wet FP2 on Friday afternoon-though the usual time attack at the end of FP3 was not too far away.

Bagnaia shot to the head of the timesheets with s 1:22.874s to lap only half-a-tenth down on Zarco’s lap record having been just over a tenth up half-way round the lap, losing a smidge of time in the final two sectors of the tour.

This would ultimately leave him to top the session ahead of Quartararo by just 0.094s, while Zarco would end up third in the session but still quickest overall as the only man not to improve in FP3.

Marc Marquez found a late improvement to shoot up to fourth overall ahead of Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro, with Jack Miller also getting himself a guaranteed Q2 spot with his own late effort.

Reigning MotoGP world champion inserted his Suzuki strongly into the top ten in seventh ahead of LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami and KTM’s Brad Binder, while Pol Espargaro managed to find just enough of an improvement to steal the final direct-to-Q2 passage from the other Suzuki of Alex Rins by a soul-crushing 0.001s.

A big name to miss out was Styrian GP winner and pole-man Martin, the Pramac rookie looking set for enough of an improvement to force his way into the top ten on his final attempt before losing the front of his Ducati at the final bend, therefore leaving him only 14th and facing a Q1 charge to salvage a Q2 position.

Miguel Oliveira continued to struggle as he ended up 13th just ahead of the Spaniard, while Alex Marquez failed to match his strong FP3 run last weekend as he could manage only 16th on the other LCR machine.

Both Petronas SRT Yamaha’s missed out with Valentino Rossi 15th and the ever-improving Cal Crutchlow 20th, while Luca Marini got the best of Avintia team-mate Enea Bastianini, the latter’s session not being helped by an early crash at Turn 1.

The duo finished up FP3 in 12th and 18th respectively.  

Spielberg, Saturday, August 14, 2021

MotoGP will utilise a new layout at the Red Bull Ring next season as the venue will construct a chicane on the stretch running up to Turn 3.

The Red Bull Ring will install the new chicane around two-thirds of the way down the stretch from Turn 1 down to Turn 3, transforming Turn 2 into a much slower change of direction that should make the run into the third bend much safer.

Dorna have confirmed that the work to construct the new section of track will begin in November and continue throughout the winter in order to be ready for the 2022 edition of the event, confirming also that the current layout will continue to exist for car racing series like Formula 1 to use.

The Austrian circuit has been the scene of several nasty crashes over the past couple of years, with all three of the past contests at the track having been red flagged at some point.

The interior fencing was extended to cover the inside of Turn 3 prior to last season’s Styrian Grand Prix following a terrifying incident between Johann Zarco and Franco Morbidelli on the approach to the bend, the former running into the rear of the latter under braking.

This saw both machines fly straight across the inside of the track and subsequently over the live track on the exit of Turn 3, narrowly missing Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales and Valentino Rossi as they cart wheeled through the air-leaving Rossi in particular visibly shaken during the resulting red flag period.

Another red flag would follow the following weekend thanks to Vinales suffering a brake failure on approach to Turn 1, forcing the Spaniard to launch himself from his M1 at around 130 miles per hour, the bike slamming into the wall and setting itself alight while he thankfully walked away without injury.

The straw that broke the camel’s back regarding the layout change came in last weekend’s Styrian GP, where Dani Pedrosa dropped his KTM while turning into the third bend, his machine then collected by an unsighted Lorenzo Savadori who suffered a broken ankle-forcing a red flag to put out both bikes which had burst into flames and left oil and fuel coating the circuit.  

Iker Lecuona ended Friday for the Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring fastest after pioneering an early switch to slicks, the Andorran 3.3 seconds faster than anyone else.

A heavy rain shower soaked the Austrian venue shortly prior to the start of the second practice session, with several riders-including Lecuona and Tech 3 team-mate Danilo Petrucci-venturing out onto the track early on to get a feel for the conditions on wet-weather rubber.

Lecuona led the way early on with a 1:33.997s, though as conditions continued to improve throughout the 45-minute test several riders enjoyed brief stints at the head of the timesheets, with Jack Miller’s Ducati as well as Honda duo Marc Marquez and Pol Espargaro taking the top spot on occasion.

Lecuona though consistently managed to find himself back at the head of the field as the clock ticked down on the session, the circuit now starting to yield a dry-line that made a late change to slicks an ever greater possibility.

It would be the Tech 3 KTM man that elected to take the risk first, soon finding his feet as he posted a 1:30.490s to put himself well clear of the rest.

He would continue to find chunks of time over the final few laps of his run before the chequered flag was shown, Lecuona ending up with a 1:27.520s that left him a full 3.3 seconds clear of Johann Zarco’s Pramac Ducati, the FP1 leader setting his best effort on wet-weather tyres.

Aleix Espargaro ended up third fastest on the sole Aprilia entered this weekend due to team-mate Lorenzo Savadori suffering a broken ankle in last weekend’s Styrian GP, while Marquez and Suzuki’s Alex Rins completed the top five.

Miller as expected also decided to brave a set of slicks in the final few minutes, though the Aussie found himself unable to generate enough heat in his rubber-leaving him only able to set a time good enough for sixth.

Alex Marquez was seventh overall on his LCR Honda ahead of the factory RC213-V of Pol, with series leader Fabio Quartararo and KTM’s Brad Binder rounding out the top ten.

Only 12 riders posted classified times in the tricky session, Styrian GP victor Jorge Martin and the other LCR Honda of Takaaki Nakagami finishing off the competitive order.   

Johann Zarco shattered the all-time Red Bull Ring MotoGP lap record to lead FP1 for the Austrian Grand Prix by a monster eight-tenths of a second over Suzuki’s Joan Mir.

The Pramac Ducati rider elected to head out in the closing stages of the session with a brand new soft rear bolted to his Desmosedici as he endeavoured to try and secure himself a direct-to-Q2 passage at the earliest possible opportunity.

He relegated then-leader Joan Mir from the head of the times with a strong 1:23.408s-over two-tenths quicker than the reigning MotoGP world champion-before winding himself up on the following tour to set a lap another six-tenths faster-a 1:22.827s.

This meant the Frenchman smashed the all-time lap record for the Red Bull Ring-posted by team-mate Jorge Martin on his way to pole in last weekend’s Styrian GP-by 0.167s, heading second-placed Mir by 0.798s.

Alex Rins joined his Suzuki team-mate in the top three with his own late flyer, while early session leader Takaaki Nakagami ended up fourth overall as the only other rider to lap within a second of Zarco’s crushing time.

Aleix Espargaro utilised a handy tow from Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia to slipstream his way to fifth despite only running a medium rear tyre, with Fabio Quartararo ending up sixth despite breaking down right as the session came to a close.

The series leader threw up his hand and coasted off the circuit on approach to the penultimate corner, though ultimately found himself able to re-join the track shortly after likely re-cycling his Yamaha and slowly head back to the pits.

Alex Marquez was seventh on the second LCR Honda ahead of Bagnaia, while the top ten was completed by Honda’s Marc Marquez and Styrian GP victor Martin.

KTM started out Friday quietly with Miguel Oliveira its top representative down in 15th just ahead of team-mate Brad Binder, with Jack Miller’s Ducati slotting in just behind in 17th.

Valentino Rossi ended FP1 in 14th, while part-time team-mate Cal Crutchlow continued to work on getting back up to speed as the injured Franco Morbidelli’s replacement in the Malaysian outfit in 20th.

Brad Binder says he “almost crashed” while struggling with the front tyre on his KTM during the Styrian Grand Prix, admitting the RC16 lacks “support” with the current rubber.

Binder once again suffered in qualifying as the South African could manage just 16^th on the grid for Sunday’s encounter, behind KTM team-mate’s Miguel Oliveira and the wild-carding Dani Pedrosa.

The one-time premier class race winner staged one of his now customary fight-backs in the race though, carving through the field to snatch fourth on the final lap-passing both Johann Zarco and Takaaki Nakagami on the last tour after crossing the for the penultimate time in sixth.

Binder conceded though that his recovery was made all the tougher as he struggled with high front tyre temperature that meant he had to “really try and stay under the limit to not crash”, leaving him keen to find a fix for the problem ahead of this weekend’s second Red Bull Ring contest.  

“The front tyre is way too weak for us, we don’t have enough support in any of the braking zones or corner entries, so the limits are set so low for us that the moment you cross it the tyres overheat and then you can’t stop the bike and you lose the front,” explained Binder.

“I had to really try and stay under the limit to not crash, and then towards the end when things were spread out more and there was less slipstream it cooled down and it got better.

“All in all I’m super happy to finish fourth, starting 16^th is not OK and to at least come back and finish fourth tops off the first weekend well and hopefully we can find something to help qualify better because we just don’t have enough confidence with the front tyre to put a lap together, but over the race distance something is working well.”

Binder said he was bailed out to an extent thanks to the early red flag period that forced the race to be restarted from the beginning, having “nearly crashed” on the formation lap as his front tyre issues began to manifest before running wide and dropping back due to feeling like he was “riding in the wet.”   

 “It was a difficult start to the first race to be honest, I had some problems for some reason off the start and I’m not sure why but it felt like I had no front tyre temperature,” continued the 2016 Moto3 world champion.

“I almost crashed on the formation lap going to the grid and then I was really nervous on the first lap with the front, it felt like I was riding in the wet because I had no heat in the front tyre and ended going off track a little into the gravel and dropped to 21^st.

“I passed a few guys and I was 16^th a few laps later and then saw the incident, but after the red flag I was able to get a much better start but struggled a lot with the front end the whole way through.”