• Thomas Preining moves up to second in the DTM drivers' standings with his first win of the season and a third place at the Lausitzring
• Ayhancan Güven scores six important championship points for himself and the team with places 15th and 11th
• Top-five results for car numbers 90 and 91 in all qualifying sessions

Lausitzring. Manthey EMA returns to the top of the points and championship standings with a win and a podium finish at the Lausitzring. After finishing third the day before, Thomas Preining (Austria) took his first win of the DTM season in Sunday's race. Ayhancan Güven (Turkey) experienced two difficult races after finishing in the top five in both qualifying sessions. Finishing 15th and 11th, he nevertheless scored six important championship points for himself and the team. 

While Thomas Preining put his Porsche 911 GT3 R on the front row of the grid with a second place in Saturday's qualifying, Ayhancan Güven completed the result for Manthey EMA with a fourth place on the grid. While the qualifying session took place in sunshine, rain began to fall immediately after the start of the race at the Lausitzring. After both nine-eleven were called into the pits to change to wet tyres, the race was interrupted by two red flags due to standing water on the track. In the remaining 33 minutes after the second restart behind the safety car, Preining defended his third position and secured his first podium result of the 2024 DTM season. Meanwhile, Güven, who had dropped back to 18th place after a pit stop one lap after Preining and after running off the track in turn eight, worked his way up to eleventh place during the race. After contact with the #92 car on the final lap and a resulting puncture, he crossed the line in 15th place and scored a championship point.

Thomas Preining started Sunday's race at the front of the field after setting a lap time of 1:20.858 in qualifying. In the course of the race, which was marked by two safety car periods and further yellow flags, the Austrian fought for the lead with the two ABT Audi cars, proved his will to win and regained the lead twice with strong manoeuvres. He defended this lead until the end of the race and celebrated his first victory of the season in the fourth race of the year. Once again, the strategic decision to make an early pit stop and the quick tyre changes by the pit crew contributed to his success. Meanwhile, Güven in his nine-eleven dropped from fifth to eighth place at the start of the race. A contact between his Porsche and Lucas Auer's Mercedes-AMG also caused damage to the number 90 car, affecting its balance and preventing a top position. Nevertheless, by crossing the finish line in eleventh place, the Turkish driver took home six important championship points from the Lausitzring.  

"After the difficult start to the season at Oschersleben, I am delighted that we have come back so strongly and are back in the fight for the championship. I am very proud of the team's work over the past few weeks. We didn't expect to have a chance to fight for victory. The key to success was on the one hand the very good preparation at the test at the Lausitzring and in the free practice sessions on Friday. On the other hand, Thomas' strong driving performance and the trust that exists within the entire team played a major role," explains Nicolas Raeder, Managing Director of the Manthey Racing GmbH. "Unfortunately, Ayhancan's race results do not reflect the driving skills he showed in qualifying. The aim is for him to build on his qualifying performance in the races at Zandvoort. However, in a championship as close as the DTM, you never know what his six points in the drivers' and teams' championships will be good for.  For us as a team, it is now important to continue analysing our performance and to constantly improve," he continues.   

After the weekend at the Lausitzring, Manthey EMA is fifth in the DTM team standings with 63 points. Thomas Preining improved to second in the drivers' standings with 55 points, while Ayhancan Güven is 16th with ten championship points.

The next DTM race is scheduled for 7-9 June 2024 at Zandvoort. Before that, Manthey EMA will compete in the 24h Nürburgring from 30 May to 2 June.

Quotes on the DTM race weekend at the Lausitzring:

Ayhancan Güven, Porsche 911 GT3 R #90: "A weekend with ups and downs for me at the Lausitzring. On the positive side, our pace in qualifying is definitely there. On the negative side, we didn't score as many points as we would have liked in both races. We will now analyse, focus on the 24h Nürburgring and then see what we need to adjust for the DTM race at Zandvoort. So far, I've scored points in every DTM race with Manthey EMA, so the basis is there. We just need to learn and improve. I'm very happy for Thomas and the whole team about the strong performance and especially about the victory on Sunday."

Thomas Preining, Porsche 911 GT3 R #91: "A mega weekend for us. I'm very happy about pole position and victory on Sunday and third place on Saturday. With a perfect car we put together a strong lap in qualifying on Saturday and the perfect lap on Sunday. In both races, a great strategy and great pit stops ensured two very good results. It shows that we used the tests at the Lausitzring perfectly, drew the right conclusions and have made great progress since Oschersleben."

Results DTM Race 1 at the Lausitzring:

3rd Thomas Preining, Porsche 911 GT3 R #91
15th Ayhancan Güven, Porsche 911 GT3 R #90

Results DTM Race 2 at the Lausitzring:

1st Thomas Preining, Porsche 911 GT3 R #91
11th Ayhancan Güven, Porsche 911 GT3 R #90

DTM Race Calendar 2024:

26.04. - 28.04.2024 Oschersleben Motorsport Arena
24.05. - 26.05.2024 DEKRA Lausitzring
07.06. - 09.06.2024 Circuit Zandvoort / NL
05.07. - 07.07.2024 Norisring
16.08. - 18.08.2024 Nürburgring
06.09. - 08.09.2024 Sachsenring
27.09. - 29.09.2024 Red Bull Ring / A
18.10. - 20.10.2024 Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg