Manthey EMA claimed two top ten results in Sunday's race at the Norisring. While Thomas Preining (Austria) made up six places to finish sixth, Ayhancan Güven (Turkey) improved by five places to finish ninth. A post-race penalty moved him up to eighth place. The team had a difficult day in Saturday's race, finishing 14th (car number 91) and 16th (car number 90). The team's pit crew had the fastest tyre change of the day on Saturday.

Thomas Preining started Saturday's race on the only street circuit of the DTM season, which is only 2.2 kilometres long, from 13th position, while Ayhancan Güven started the race from seventeenth. After the Austrian made up two places in the starting phase of the race, he was called in to change tyres immediately after the pit stop window opened in order to exploit a strategic advantage. This strategy did not work out due to an mistake during the pit stop. A penalty lap cost the Austrian positions, which meant that he was running in 14th position after the pit stop window closed. He finished the first race of the weekend in this position and scored two championship points. Ayhancan Güven crossed the finish line in sixteenth place. After initially fighting his way up to tenth place during the race, an approaching thunderstorm and the brief onset of rain led to the team deciding to switch to wet tyres on both cars. As a result, the Turkish driver was called into the pits a second time shortly after his mandatory stop and lost places as the cars remaining on slick tyres gained an advantage.

In qualifying on Sunday, Preining put his nine-eleven on the sixth row of the grid in twelfth place. Ayhancan Güven started fourteenth, one row behind his team-mate. In the starting phase of the race, the Austrian improved to ninth place, while Güven moved up to eleventh. After losing a few places during the course of the race, the Turk was able to regain this position thanks to a successful pit stop. Ten minutes before the end of the race, the safety car was called onto the track due to carbon parts on track. By then, both Porsche 911 GT3 R had moved up one place each. After the safety car phase was cancelled, both drivers showed strong overtaking manoeuvres in the remaining five minutes and saw the chequered flag in sixth (Preining) and ninth (Güven) place. Due to a five-second penalty imposed on car number 31 after the race, Güven moved up to eighth place.

"A difficult weekend with a positive end at the Norisring. Saturday was disappointing in difficult weather conditions. Unfortunately, we made a mistake during Thomas' pit stop, which led to a penalty lap. It's unfortunate, but things like this can happen at any time. We learn from it and stick together as a team. It was also difficult to make tyre decisions during the race because of the changing weather forecast and the sporadic rain. We opted for the safe option with the wet tyres. But in the end the teams that stayed on slicks had the advantage. The race on Sunday was very exciting and we were able to make up some places and score some important points. It was really fun to watch. Overall, however, we expected more from this weekend. We hope to live up to our expectations at our home race at the Nürburgring," says Nicolas Raeder, Managing Director of Manthey Racing GmbH.

After the third race weekend of the season, Manthey EMA remains seventh in the DTM team standings with 94 points. Thomas Preining is also seventh in the drivers' championship with 75 points, while Ayhancan Güven is 19th with 17 points.

The next DTM race will be held at the team's home circuit, the Nürburgring, from 16 to 18 August 2024. In the meantime, Manthey will contest the fourth round of the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie and the 6 Hours of Sao Paolo in the FIA WEC

QUOTES ON THE DTM RACE WEEKEND AT THE NORISRING:

Ayhancan Güven, Porsche 911 GT3 R #90: "I finished the race on Sunday in eighth place and Thommy in sixth, which meant good points for the team. After Saturday's race and both qualifying sessions, we deserved it, because they were very difficult and we couldn't keep up with the competition. However, we as a team are trying to keep spirits high and I am very proud of the result of the second race and the performance of the entire crew. But as we know what we are capable of, we want more in the end. That's why I'm really looking forward to the next race at the Nürburgring."

Thomas Preining, Porsche 911 GT3 R #91: "Another tough weekend for us. Personally, I'm disappointed that I couldn't complete the hattrick here at the Norisring and we were expecting more points overall. But we had a great race on Sunday, even though things didn't go so well in qualifying with twelfth place. It was really fun to finish sixth with some strong duels and it's nice that we were finally able to fight for positions with the others on the track again. Big thanks to the team and I'm already looking forward to the Nürburgring, where we want to come back even stronger."

Results DTM Race 1 at the Norisring:

14th Thomas Preining, Porsche 911 GT3 R #91
16th Ayhancan Güven, Porsche 911 GT3 R #90

Results DTM Race 2 at the Norisring:

6th Thomas Preining, Porsche 911 GT3 R #91
8th Ayhancan Güven, Porsche 911 GT3 R #90

DTM-Rennkalender 2024:
26.04. – 28.04.2024 Motorsport Arena Oschersleben
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