The Latest Breaking News from Christian Engelhart

After reporting an undisclosed issue to his team over radio, Engel was having to drive with a 90-degree steering angle to keep his Mercedes-AMG GT3 going in a straight line, as he valiantly tried to defend third place against the Schubert BMW of Rene Rast.

Having wrapped up the title with three bonus points in qualifying earlier on Sunday morning, Preining led nearly the entirety of the race from pole position to complete a perfect weekend at the 4.5km circuit.

Having already won the penultimate race of the season on Saturday to stretch his advantage to 27 points, Preining wrapped up the title in qualifying on Sunday after beating his title rival Mirko Bortolotti to pole position by 0.006s.

Preining didn’t put a foot wrong all day, claiming pole position in his Manthey EMA Porsche before leading every lap outside of the pitstop cycle to bag a maximum haul of 28 points.

Under the current schedule, the starting grid for each race is decided by a 20-minute shootout at 9am, when many fans are yet to reach the track.

Under the current schedule, the starting grid for each race is decided by a 20-minute shootout at 9am, when many fans are yet to reach the track.

The 911 GT3 R proved to be one of the more competitive cars at the beginning of the year, with a 1-2-3-4 result led by Christian Engelhart at Oschersleben prompting rivals to describe the DTM as a ‘Porsche Cup’ series.

Formula 1 races this year have become an exercise in inevitability. Even if Max Verstappen is beaten to pole, or is bumped down the grid by a penalty as in Spa, it seems only a matter of time until he gets to the front. Red Bull’s reign of dominance has…

SSR Performance’s Bortolotti was unchallenged in the hour-long opening contest at the former German Grand Prix venue, resisting two safety cars periods and a brief rain shower to take the chequered flag by 1.1s over Winward Mercedes’ Lucas Auer. Championship leader Thomas Preining completed the podium in third.

Having scored his maiden podium since his switch to Audi on Saturday, Rast carried that form into qualifying for the second leg of the DTM’s blue riband event, setting a rapid time of 48.622s in Group A.

Due to the short nature of the Nuremberg street circuit, the 27-driver grid was split into two groups for qualifying, with each group getting 20 minutes of on-track time.