Schubert Motorsport kicked off the 2024 DTM season with their home round at Oschersleben and experienced a rollercoaster of emotions just outside their headquarters. Sheldon van der Linde finished the two eventful races on Saturday and Sunday in fourth and sixth positions, respectively. René Rast also scored points with two seventh-place finishes in both races. Marco Wittmann led the Saturday race in the closing stages, but retired just before the finish due to fuel pressure issues. On Sunday, Wittmann secured points with a tenth-place finish.
The first race on Saturday already provided fans at Oschersleben with plenty of excitement. With a tactical masterpiece, Schubert Motorsport brought Wittmann in the #11 Schaeffler BMW M4 GT3, starting from 19th, into the lead. However, just before the end, with victory in sight, Wittmann rolled to a stop on the start-finish straight due to fuel pressure issues. Van der Linde fought in the #31 Shell BMW M4 GT3 until the finish line for a podium finish, ultimately finishing fourth with a narrow gap. Rast secured points in seventh place in the #33 RoboMarkets BMW M4 GT3.
After a challenging qualifying session on Sunday, all three BMW M works drivers staged a comeback in the second race, moving up from the back of the field. However, van der Linde suffered an early setback when he couldn’t avoid a collision ahead of him at the start. The South African resumed the race in last place and worked his way up position by position. Eventually, he finished sixth, followed directly by Rast, who again was seventh. Wittmann completed the points positions in tenth place.
In the support programme, the ADAC GT Masters and the ADAC GT4 Germany also kicked off the 2024 season – with successes for the BMW M4 GT3 and the BMW M4 GT4. In the ADAC GT Masters, Maxime Oosten secured pole position for FK Performance Motorsport in Saturday’s qualifying. In the first race, he celebrated victory together with teammate Leon Köhler in the #54 BMW M4 GT3. In the ADAC GT4 Germany, Gabriele Piana and Michael Schrey in the Hofor Racing by Bonk Motorsport #2 BMW M4 GT4 secured pole position and victory in race one on Saturday. Their teammates, Leon Wassertheurer and Tim Reiter, secured third place on the podium in the #3 BMW M4 GT4. In Sunday’s qualifying, Reiter claimed pole position. Piana and Schrey celebrated their second win of the weekend in Sunday’s race.
Unfortunately, it was a rather mixed start for us in the DTM. On Saturday, thanks to a superb strategy, Marco Wittmann could have achieved a clear victory, but he unfortunately lost it due to a team error. However, Sheldon van der Linde fought for the podium until the end, and René Rast also scored points by finishing seventh in both races. Congratulations to the successful BMW M Motorsport teams in the ADAC GT Masters and ADAC GT4 Germany. With pole positions, wins, and the podium, they really impressed.
After qualifying, I said: If we have all three cars in the top ten I'm satisfied. We achieved that on Sunday. I'm pleased that we could take these points. It’s not only important to win races, but also to collect points. We knew this weekend that the track wasn't quite optimal for us. Nevertheless, we were able to show consistent race performances with all three cars.
Comments:
Sheldon van der Linde (#31 Shell BMW M4 GT3): “I think it was a really good weekend. The car didn’t really suit this track and, considering that, we had very good results with fourth and sixth. It was definitely unexpected considering where we ended up last year with basically almost not getting into the points. I am very proud of the guys, the strategy was clearly the key point in the race. At the end of race two, we jumped like five or six cars. I am generally very happy with the points this weekend.”
René Rast (#33 RoboMarkets BMW M4 GT3): “It was a challenging weekend, especially on Sunday. For some reason, we didn’t have the pace in qualifying. Still, it was seventh place in the race, just like on Saturday. We scored points twice, but, of course, that’s not what we envision. We want to fight for podiums. But we knew that Oschersleben would be a tough track for us. So we made the best out of it.”
Marco Wittmann (#11 Schaeffler BMW M4 GT3): “It was, of course, frustrating that due to an error on Saturday, which is human, we threw away the victory and 25 points after we had taken the lead through the right call, strategy, and a bit of luck. On Sunday, nothing went right. We didn’t have the pace; the balance was very difficult. So, it was just about finishing the race, but there wasn’t really anything to gain. It was a tough weekend.”