Kelvin van der Linde has given Team ABT Sportsline its 70th victory in the DTM. Following his victories at Monza and Zolder, the championship leader also won Saturday’s race at the Nürburgring. After the first half of the season, the South African, who lives near Kempten, has a 33-point lead in the drivers’ championship. In the teams’ championship, ABT Sportsline is also at the top of the table after the first half of the 2021 DTM season.
Saturday was a picture-perfect day for ABT Sportsline: Kelvin van der Linde secured pole position for the third time this season with a perfect qualifying lap and then celebrated a commanding victory. On the way, he only had to shake twice when late stoppers Timo Glock and Alex Albon put up a massive fight against the ABT driver. The South African stayed cool, grabbed the two opponents and, after crossing the finish line, ordered an ice cream from SAT.1 commentator Eddy Mielke, which was promptly served to him by colleague Andrea Kaiser at the podium ceremony.
Walter Kolb accepted the trophy for the winning team. The 73-year-old pensioner from Isny had auctioned a seat at the pit stand of ABT Sportsline for the race at the Nürburgring by donating 6,000 Euros for the victims of the flood disaster in the region. The DTM was the first race event after the flood at the Nürburgring.
Before the start of the race, children affected by the flood had visited the ABT Sportsline pit and were even allowed to hold the steering wheel of the eventual winning car in their hands before the race. The visit of the children touched the ABT drivers deeply.
During a minute of silence and interviews before the race, Mike Rockenfeller had tears in his eyes. “Luckily I was wearing sunglasses,” said the ABT driver, who grew up near the Nürburgring. Things didn’t seem to go well at all for “Rocky” at his home race afterwards. After the first lap of Saturday’s race, he found himself in 21st place, but then fought his way up to third after a late pit stop and was subsequently celebrated as the “man of the race”.
The dream Saturday for ABT Sportsline was followed by a nightmare on Sunday: in a wild race, Kelvin van der Linde was touched by Liam Lawson when braking for the chicane and pushed into his team-mate Mike Rockenfeller. Both ABT drivers had to retire and remained without points for the first time this season.
Markus Winkelhock, who replaced Sophia Flörsch at the Nürburgring, also got to know Liam Lawson. The Swabian moved through the field on Saturday in Mike Rockenfeller’s slipstream, but then collided with Lawson on his way to the front. The subsequent drive-through penalty cost him a top ten result. In the turbulent race on Sunday, Winkelhock also fought in the leading group with his ABT Audi R8 LMS until a drive-through penalty.
