Thomas Preining explains “huge disappointment” after difficult DTM Sunday

TL;DR

Thomas Preining expressed disappointment after finishing 13th in the DTM race in Spielberg, following his victory the previous day. He noted that the track conditions changed, impacting his performance.

Key points

Thomas Preining finished 13th in the DTM race in Spielberg.
He won the opening race the day before.
Preining described his Sunday performance as a 'huge disappointment'.
Changing track conditions affected his performance.
He drives for Manthey Racing.

Mentioned in this story

Spielberg

Thomas PreiningManthey RacingDTM

Motorsport photo

Thomas Preining endured a frustrating turnaround at the DTM opener in Spielberg, describing his Sunday performance as a “huge disappointment” after winning the opening race just a day earlier.

The Manthey Racing Porsche driver followed up his Saturday victory with only 14th on the grid and 13th in the race, unable to replicate his earlier pace.

“On the one hand it’s incredibly close, but on the other, the track suited us extremely well yesterday,” Preining told Motorsport.com's sister title Motorsport-Total.com. “Today the track was back to how it was on Friday — and that shows where we are.”

The key difference, according to the 27-year-old, was grip. “There was much more grip yesterday,” he explained. “You could already see in qualifying that we lost more compared to the competition than we did the day before. The track was probably two tenths faster.”

Preining believes this was partly due to rubber laid down by other series racing at the Red Bull Ring, including ADAC GT Masters, ADAC GT4 Germany, Porsche Carrera Cup Germany and Formula Regional European Championship.

Midfield start proves costly

However, the main issue was his starting position. “Yesterday we were able to run our own race from the front,” Preining told ran.de. “That’s where we can play to our strengths in the corners.

“But when you’re stuck in the midfield, you’re always behind someone in the corners, and on the straights we don’t have the performance to make up ground.”

The result saw the 2023 DTM champion lose the points lead to Maro Engel.

Sunday’s race, he admitted, was “a huge disappointment.” Starting from the midfield made overtaking extremely difficult, while leaving him vulnerable on the straights.

Qualifying compromised by traffic

Qualifying proved decisive. According to Manthey race operations manager Patrick Arkenau, traffic played a significant role.

“Thomas wasn’t ideally positioned,” Arkenau explained, revealing that Preining had to abort two flying laps. “That makes it difficult. Even with 20 cars it’s tricky, especially given our position in the pitlane.”