At the sixth stop on the 2024 DTM calendar at the Sachsenring, the Mercedes-AMG Team HRT secured its long-awaited first victory of the season. In Sunday's race, Luca Stolz (GER) won in the #4 Mercedes-AMG GT3 after an impressive performance from third on the grid. On Saturday, the team from Drees also achieved a strong overall result with Stolz and Arjun Maini (IND) finishing fourth and fifth.
- Luca Stolz and HRT repeat last year's victory at the Sachsenring
- Excellent team result on Saturday with two top 5 finishes
In midsummer conditions the DTM arrived to the Sachsenring last weekend, where rounds eleven and twelve of the season were held. The iconic 3.645-kilometre circuit has proven to be a successful hunting ground for Mercedes-AMG Team HRT in the past. Luca Stolz achieved the last DTM victory for HRT on this circuit in 2023 - and the Mercedes-AMG Performance Driver made it to the top step of the podium again in 2024 thanks to a remarkably fast pace in Sunday's race.
Luca Stolz laid the foundation for the victory that followed in qualifying on Sunday morning. With third place on the grid - just 0.073 seconds off the pole time - the GT3 veteran put himself in an excellent starting position. Especially because overtaking is historically difficult at the Sachsenring. Thanks to a good start, he took second place going into turn one. Just a few laps later, the gap to the third-placed driver was already at around ten seconds. A safety car deployment after the mandatory pit stops initially brought the field back together. With his #4 Mercedes-AMG GT3 sporting the design of team partner Merbag, Luca Stolz kept up the pace after the restart and subsequently benefited from a penalty imposed on the leader. After completing 44 laps, Luca Stolz commandingly took the newly gained top position across the finish line, securing the first victory of the current season for himself and the team. It was also the first victory for the Mercedes-AMG GT3 in the 2024 DTM, the sixth success for the Haupt Racing Team in its 60th DTM outing and the third DTM career win for Luca Stolz. His team-mate Arjun Maini had to retire from the race prematurely on lap 17 due to a loose wheel after his pit stop.
The Haupt Racing Team scored important championship points on Saturday as well. A strong qualifying performance had again laid the foundation, allowing Luca Stolz and Arjun Maini, the latter driving the #36 Mercedes-AMG GT3 in the colours of Mannol, to start the one-hour race from the second row of the grid. Both drove a flawless race, delivering consistently fast lap times. At the chequered flag, they finished fourth (Stolz) and fifth (Maini), for which they were awarded a total of 24 points. In total, the team scored 49 championship points on the most productive race weekend of the season so far.
The next DTM event will take place on 28 and 29 September at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria. Drivers from Mercedes-AMG Team HRT have also finished on the podium several times on the high-speed circuit in Styria. The last time was in 2022, when Sachsenring winner Luca Stolz finished second in Sunday's race.
Luca Stolz, #4 Mercedes-AMG Team HRT: "First of all, many thanks to my team. I had a really good car all weekend. We could already see in practice that we are competitive. I had two good qualifying sessions and started from P3 in both races. That's very important on a track like the Sachsenring. It was a pretty hot race on Sunday. I'm very happy to be back on the top step of the podium. We have worked a long time for this and have often been unlucky this season. That's why I'm enjoying this moment."
Arjun Maini, #36 Mercedes-AMG Team HRT: "I had a really good qualifying on Saturday and was very happy with the balance of the car. We also delivered the performance in the race and scored good points again with fifth place. On Sunday, however, the pace was already lacking in qualifying. We need to take a closer look at the data and analyse that. The difficulties continued in the race and in the end a wheel came off after the pit stop. The car felt completely normal after the tyre change and we can't yet explain the reason for this."
Ulrich Fritz, Chief Executive Officer Haupt Racing Team: "A great and successful weekend for us at the Sachsenring. Fourth and fifth place on Saturday was a strong team result. Luca then put in a great qualifying on Sunday, which he confidently converted into a victory. He was simply consistent and fast in this race. A bitter taste is of course Arjun's retirement after his pit stop, the cause of which we will analyse carefully. At the moment, however, the joy of victory and an overall very successful weekend at Sachsenring with a good points haul for us outweighs this. Many thanks to the team, which did a great job. We are now looking forward to the four remaining races."
