With third place for Ayhancan Güven (Turkey) in Saturday's race of the season finale at the Hockenheimring, Manthey EMA secured its fourth DTM podium result of the 2024 season. It was the Turkish driver's second podium finish in his DTM career and his first with Manthey EMA. He ends the 2024 season in 16th place in the championship (69 points). Thomas Preining (Austria) narrowly missed out on his fourth podium of the season on Sunday, finishing fourth at the end of the season. After securing two championship points with fourteenth place on Saturday, he finished fifth in the championship (158 points). With another strong performance in all tyre changes over the weekend, the team wins the overall standings of the Pitstop Challenge 2024, having delivered at least one of the three fastest tyre changes in 14 out of 16 races.

Ayhancan Güven started Saturday's race from third place, while Thomas Preining lined up sixth on the grid. Güven drove his own race for the entire 60 minutes of the race without being involved in any duels and, in third place, always maintained the same gap to his rivals, came in third position to change tyres and found himself in the same position after all his rivals' pit stops. He maintained his podium position until the end of the race, taking his first DTM podium with Manthey EMA and the second of his career to date. Preining, meanwhile, experienced a difficult race. After dropping back to eighth place at the start, the Austrian lost another four positions before the pit stop. He finally crossed the finish line in fourteenth position, which he already held after the tyre change, thus securing two more championship points.

Starting the final sprint race of the season from twelfth on the grid, Ayhancan Güven was initially able to make up four positions in the starting phase on Sunday. However, after contact with another car, the Porsche 911 GT3 R with starting number 90 was damaged on the front bumper and had to be brought into the pit lane for repairs on the instructions of the race organisers. Back on the track, the Turkish driver finished the race in 19th place after the number 4 car retired. Thomas Preining had already worked his way up from 13th to ninth place in the first third of the race. With the second-fastest tyre change of the race, the Austrian improved to fifth place during the pit stop window. After benefiting from a mistake by the number 94 car, he moved up to fourth position, which he held until the chequered flag fell. This means that he has never failed to score points in 32 races since the start of the 2023 season with Manthey EMA.

‘It's obviously sad for us to leave Hockenheim and not being champions anymore. Nevertheless, it was a good weekend, first of all for Ayhancan, who finally deserved to show what he can do with third place on Saturday. Then, of course, I'm particularly pleased that we were able to win the Pitstop Challenge. This means that we have achieved what was still open last year and have now won everything there is to win in the DTM in two years. That's something special and makes me very proud. Overall, we have done a very good job as a team this season and hope that we can be in the fight for the championship again next year,’ explains Nicolas Raeder, Managing Director of Manthey Racing GmbH.

Thomas Preining ends the 2024 season in fifth place in the championship standings with 158 points, while Ayhancan Güven finishes in 16th place (69 points). Manthey EMA finishes the season in sixth place in the team standings with 226 points.

After the last DTM race weekend in 2024, the next season finale is on the agenda for Manthey in two weeks time with the 8 Hours of Bahrain (FIA WEC) before the team competes in the first round of the Asian Le Mans Series on 7 December.

Quotes on the DTM race weekend at the Hockenheimring:

Patrick Arkenau, Division Manager Racing at the Manthey Racing GmbH: "It was obviously a difficult weekend for us, because if you ignore the results, we have now finally had to relinquish all the championship titles we won last year. Even though it was clear beforehand that we wouldn't be able to defend the championship, it's obviously disappointing at first. But congratulations to Mirko, who took the drivers' title after it didn't work out in his favour last year. Unfortunately, we weren't that competitive this weekend and we lacked pace. But I'm glad that Ayhancan was able to take home a podium place and that we were able to finish fourth on Sunday with Thomas thanks to a strong performance on his part, a super strategy and another quick pit stop. A conciliatory end to a difficult season."

Ayhancan Güven, Porsche 911 GT3 R #90: "I'm very proud to have clinched my first DTM podium with Manthey EMA on Saturday. Things didn't go quite so well on Sunday, because I had damage to the front of my car after a slight contact, which had to be repaired. But the bottom line is that Saturday was a success and overall I'm proud of how we improved after the summer break and were able to achieve some good results. A big thank you to my team, all the mechanics, engineers and the rest of the crew. The season was not easy for all of us, especially after the team's success last year. But in the end I think we got stronger even on the bad days and I would like to thank everyone for always giving their best."

Thomas Preining, Porsche 911 GT3 R #91: "It was not an easy weekend for us at Hockenheim. But I was very pleased that Ayhancan was able to clinch his first podium with us in the DTM, after he had often had bad luck before. My Sunday race was conciliatory after we lacked the pace in qualifying. After a good strategy and a super tyre change by the crew, who really deserve to be pitstop champions, I was able to make up positions. Fourth place, which I then had to and was able to defend for the rest of the race, is a good thing. The season was very exhausting for me and in the end the result is not what we all deserved as a team. Nevertheless, I'm very proud to have always scored points in the last 32 DTM races and can only say a big thank you to the team. From tomorrow, I'll be looking to the future."

Results DTM Race 1 at the Hockenheimring:

3rd Ayhancan Güven, Porsche 911 GT3 R #90
14th Thomas Preining, Porsche 911 GT3 R #91

Results DTM Race 2 at the Hockenheimring:

4th Thomas Preining, Porsche 911 GT3 R #91
19th Ayhancan Güven, Porsche 911 GT3 R #90

DTM Race Calendar 2024:

26.04. - 28.04.2024 Oschersleben Motorsport Arena
24.05. - 26.05.2024 DEKRA Lausitzring
07.06. - 09.06.2024 Circuit Zandvoort / NL
05.07. - 07.07.2024 Norisring
16.08. - 18.08.2024 Nürburgring
06.09. - 08.09.2024 Sachsenring
27.09. - 29.09.2024 Red Bull Ring / A
18.10. - 20.10.2024 Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg

Source: Manthey Racing