Ayhancan Güven had big plans for the new DTM season – and he promptly fulfilled those ambitions on the first weekend: The Turkish Manthey EMA driver swept to victory in Sunday’s race at the opening round of the DTM season in Oschersleben. With his engineers and pit crew, the driver of the No. 90 Porsche 911 GT3 R used the opportunities offered by the new race format perfectly to his advantage. While Saturday’s race still features one mandatory pit stop, Sunday now has two. Tackling the race from the fourth grid spot, Güven chose the ideal time to change tyres and after the first pit stop window closed, he was in the lead. The former Porsche Junior then pulled clear of the field by as much as five seconds. Strategically waiting until the last possible minute to take his second pit stop, he went on to clinch an unchallenged victory.
From seventh to thrid place in two flawless tyre changes
Austrian factory driver Thomas Preining rounded off Manthey EMA’s success in Sunday’s race with third place. After an unlucky qualifying session, the 2023 DTM champion started from seventh place. Like his teammate Güven, the Austrian also benefited from the Manthey engineers’ daring race strategy. Two flawless tyre changes catapulted the 26-year-old to fourth place by the start of the final phase. Thanks to an inspired overtaking move against Lamborghini driver Jordan Pepper, Preining secured a podium spot.
‟Sunday’s success is the result of excellent and consistent driving skills and an outstanding performance from the entire team – from the exemplary in- and out-laps to the perfect strategic decisions of the engineers and the flawless execution of the pit stops,” praised Sebastian Golz, Project Manager Porsche 911 GT3 R. ‟Ayhancan Güven and Thomas Preining kept their cool at every stage and used their head and heart. The new race format with two mandatory tyre changes underlined the importance of strategy and the value of the pit crews’ work.”
Porsche customer team Manthey ranks first in the team classification
Thanks to the double podium result, Manthey leads the team standings after the first of eight race weekends. The points earned in Saturday’s race also contributed to this. In the opening race of the DTM season, Preining collected championship points for fourth place, with Güven earning points for seventh. At his DTM debut, Manthey Junior Team driver Morris Schuring narrowly missed out on claiming points by just three-tenths of a second. On Sunday, the 20-year-old Dutchman also delivered an immaculate performance in the third 416 kW (565 PS) 911. After a slight blunder during the pit stop, he finished on P17.
Comments after the race
Nicolas Raeder (Managing Director Manthey Racing GmbH): ‟Compared to last year, our start to the season was positive. We got a lot of things right in Sunday’s race: the strategies, the pit stops – everything ran flawlessly. I’m particularly delighted about Ayhancan’s victory. Unfortunately, Thomas suffered somewhat from the effects of a chaotic qualifying session. Thanks to our perfect teamwork, both advanced up the order virtually at the same pace. I’m also thrilled with Morris and his DTM debut, even though it might seem disappointing that he went home empty-handed. We need to apologise to him for the mistake that happened during one of the pit stops, which undoubtedly cost him a few places.”
Thomas Preining (Manthey EMA, Porsche 911 GT3 R #91): ‟Without the swift pit stops and our good race strategy, we would’ve had no chance of making up that much ground. After a difficult qualifying, my focus was on damage control. I didn’t want to take any unnecessary risks and simply wanted to score as many points as possible. Nobody could have predicted that I’d move up to third place. It’s a nice change to have such a good start to a season. Not even in my 2023 championship-winning year did things go as well for us at the season opener here in Oschersleben.”
Morris Schuring (Manthey Junior Team, Porsche 911 GT3 R #92): ‟I’d say this was a character-building weekend for me. Obviously, the results aren’t ideal, but I learned a lot. We showed great potential, especially in the second race, but unfortunately, we experienced a minor issue during the pit stop. I’m pleased for Ayhancan and Thomas – victory and third place are truly fantastic! We’ll now take a good look at what I can do better during the next race weekend at the Lausitzring.”
Ayhancan Güven (Manthey EMA, Porsche 911 GT3 R #90): ‟I wanted to stay within striking distance of the front runners until the first pit stop to enable my engineers to develop different strategies. They called me in at exactly the right time. My in-lap was great, and I rejoined the race in an excellent position. This allowed me to warm up my tyres without any traffic around me. I subsequently eked out a decent lead, so in the final stages it was just a matter of defending the front spot and completing the second stop routinely.”
Result race 1:
1. Lucas Auer (DEU), Landgraf Motorsport, Mercedes-AMG #22, 40 laps
2. Jordan Pepper (RSA), Grasser-Racing-Team, Lamborghini #63, +0.641 seconds
3. Maro Engel (DEU), Winward Racing, Mercedes-AMG #24, +3.885 seconds
4. Thomas Preining (AUT), Manthey EMA, Porsche 911 GT3 R #91, +7.905 seconds
7. Ayhancan Güven (TUR), Manthey EMA, Porsche 911 GT3 R #90, +22.005 seconds
16. Morris Schuring (NLD), Manthey Junior Team, Porsche 911 GT3 R #92, +40.991 seconds
Result race 2:
1. Ayhancan Güven (TUR), Manthey EMA, Porsche 911 GT3 R #90, 40 laps
2. Jules Gounon (FRA), Winward Racing, Mercedes-AMG #48, +2,695 seconds
3. Thomas Preining (A), Manthey EMA, Porsche 911 GT3 R #91, +3,370 seconds
17. Morris Schuring (NLD), Manthey Junior Team, Porsche 911 GT3 R #92, +27,901 seconds
Drivers’ rankings after two of 16 races:
1. Jordan Pepper (Grasser-Racing-Team, Lamborghini), 37 points
2. Ayhancan Güven (Manthey EMA, Porsche), 34 points
3. Lucas Auer (Team Landgraf, Mercedes-AMG), 34 points
5. Thomas Preining (Manthey EMA, Porsche), 30 points
Team rankings after two of 16 races:
1. Manthey (Porsche), 63 points
2. Winward Racing (Mercedes-AMG), 51 points
2. Grasser-Racing-Team (Lamborghini), 48 points
Manufacturers’ rankings after two of 16 races:
1. Mercedes-AMG, 68 points
2. Porsche, 64 points
3. Lamborghini, 50 points
Full results at: https://www.dtm.com/en/results
