First victory worldwide for the Lamborghini Temerario GT3 - which faced heavy criticism at the start of the season - in Sunday's DTM race at Oschersleben! After a strong second place by Abt Lamborghini driver Luca Engstler on Saturday, Grasser driver Mirko Bortolotti went one better on Sunday and secured the breakthrough for the vehicle. But are the Temerario's problems solved now?
"I do not suspect that it will continue like this," team principal Gottfried Grasser says in an interview with Motorsport-Total.com, remaining skeptical. "Everything came together today, but I believe that tracks like the Sachsenring will be relatively difficult."
Despite the euphoria at the traditional Lamborghini squad, which helped the predecessor Huracan GT3 to its first victory worldwide ten years ago, Grasser remains realistic, stating "that with this single result, of course, not all problems are solved."
"Still haven't found all the answers"
"We still haven't found all the answers regarding the performance of the car. We see that time and again in qualifying and also on certain race tracks. So there is still a lot of work ahead of us."
But why did the Temerario GT3 work so well in Oschersleben? "In the first sector with the tight corners, we are unbeatable," Grasser explains. "In Sector 3, where there are normal corners, we are at the back again. This shows the current characteristics of the car. In tight corners with few braking zones, the car is very strong."
In fact, in the first sector in Oschersleben, which consists of the first three corners, there is no hard braking point. And the brakes remain the biggest construction site for the car, which, thanks to a DTM waiver, is used with more rear-axle downforce and more boost pressure than permitted by the FIA homologation.
Why the first sector was tailor-made for the Lamborghini
"The first corner is not a brutal braking point because you brake gently into that kink. It is not like Monza, where you arrive at 250 km/h and then have to brake fully," explains Grasser. Apart from that, according to the engineer who helped develop the predecessor model Huracan, the vehicle suits slow corners, which are plentiful in Oschersleben.
"We also saw that at the Norisring. Braking was an issue there, but in the corners everything was fine," he says, referring to Nurnberg, where the Grasser team was in the midfield and Bortolotti finished eighth and eleventh.
The Oschersleben data also confirms Grasser's statement: Abt Lamborghini driver Engstler was the absolute fastest in the two qualifying sessions in the first sector with a 29.833 seconds - even ahead of Thomas Preining (29.849), who dominated the weekend in the Manthey Porsche.
In third and fourth place were HRT drivers Arjun Maini (29.858) and Finn Wiebelhaus (29.909), also drivers whose Ford Mustang GT3 Evo is not exactly known for its brakes being a strength.
"If we had nailed the first stop, we would have led"
"I don't think we were the fastest out there," Bortolotti also says. Instead, "the strategy in our case was the key to success," as the Italian, who started from sixth place, was the last to pit during the first window, which moved him up to second place.
And this despite the fact that the tire change, at 9.2 seconds, actually went wrong and 2.2 seconds were lost to leader Thomas Preining. "If we had nailed the first one, we would have led after the first stop," Grasser believes. After the stop, Bortolotti was 3.1 seconds behind Preining, but Preining would have had to get past Bortolotti first.
Why the overcut worked so well for the Lamborghini
"We were surprised why hardly anyone relied on this strategy, because driving long has always been good in Oschersleben," says Grasser. "In our case, we also have a car that is very easy on the tires anyway. And you get the tire up to temperature immediately due to the many corners, and no one can easily pull away from you. That is impossible on another track."
Before the second stop, Bortolotti put himself in position and lurked directly behind leader Preining to then profit from the pit stop blunder at Manthey. The Grasser crew handled the 2024 DTM champion in 7.3 seconds, making them 2.2 seconds faster than Manthey this time, which gave Bortolotti the lead and ultimately the victory.
"One must emphasize Mirko's brilliant performance," says Grasser after the first joint DTM victory with his long-time companion and friend Bortolotti, who reached the finish line three seconds ahead of Preining. "What he fired off again with that machine! He even pulls out a gap at the end, so really, hats off to him."
