Mozambican Rodrigo Dias Almeida scores maiden win in talent pool DTM Trophy at Red Bull Ring 25.09.2022: • Team BWT Mücke Motorsport delivers first win of the season for Mercedes-AMG • Early decision in the title battle by Tim Heinemann in second place • Colin Caresani, second in the standings, retires early in Styria

 
•    Team BWT Mücke Motorsport delivers first win of the season for Mercedes-AMG


•    Early decision in the title battle by Tim Heinemann in second place


•    Colin Caresani, second in the standings, retires early in Styria



For the first time, there is a winner from Mozambique in the talent pool on the high-quality DTM platform. With the Mercedes-AMG run by the BWT Mücke Motorsport team, Rodrigo Dias Almeida won the DTM Trophy race at Red Bull Ring in Austria on Sunday.



German Toyota driver Tim Heinemann (Toyota Gazoo Racing Germany powered by Ring-Racing) made a big step towards the title win with second place, Brazilian Audi driver Thiago Vivacqua (Heide-Motorsport) rounds out the winners’ podium in third place.



“That was an incredible victory! Many thanks to the team, I am simply overjoyed,” Almeida celebrated after his maiden victory on the DTM platform. “I like this track very much, it is really special. We had to manage the tyres and we succeeded in doing so.”



In the course of the 20 race laps, Almeida turned out to be too fast for his opponents. The Mercedes-AMG driver had started from third on the grid and led the field from lap seven onwards. Earlier on, the man from Mozambique had already overtaken Porsche driver Daniel Gregor from KÜS Team Bernhard, who had started from pole position.



The 16-year-old German initially converted his optimal grid position into the early race lead, but soon had to hand this position to Heinemann. However, race control instructed the Toyota driver to give up two positions for having gained an advantage by exceeding the track limits. Because of this penalty, Almeida eventually got up into the lead and went on to defend it in a commanding way. For Mercedes-AMG, it was the first win of the season in the DTM Trophy with production-based GT sports cars.



Heinemann worked his way up again from third to second place and turned down the fierce attacks by Vivacaqua in the closing stages. The Brazilian had started from tenth place following a six-place grid penalty and consequently worked his way up through the field. However, the Audi driver was unable to find a way past Heinemann.



For the Toyota driver, this second place equals an early decision in the battle for the title. Going into the finale at Hockenheim in a fortnight, Toyota driver Heinemann, the inaugural DTM Trophy champion in 2020, has a comfortable margin of 50 points over title rival Colin Caresani with the Project 1 BMW. The young Dutchman didn’t score any points in the Sunday race in Styria due to a technical failure.



Heinemann is leading comfortably with 196 points from Caresani (146), Vivacqua (129) is now third from Theo Oeverhaus (GER), who only finished ninth with the Walkenhorst BMW. In the two remaining races at Hockenheimring, a maximum of 58 points can still be won.




Aline Proll- photos DTM