October 21, 2024
Podium place for the Mamba at the DTM season finale
Lucas Auer and the Mercedes-AMG Team MANN-FILTER celebrate a strong second place in the Saturday run of the DTM final weekend in Hockenheim.
Ludwigsburg, October 21, 2024 – At the DTM season finale at the Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg, the MANN-FILTER Mamba presented itself with its usual ferocity in front of a dream backdrop of 95,000 spectators. Lucas Auer drove the Mercedes-AMG GT3 of the Mercedes-AMG Team MANN-FILTER to 2nd and 8th place in the two races, celebrating the successful conclusion of a racing season that has not always gone exactly as he would have liked.
Second place for Lucas Auer in the MANN-FILTER Mamba
In the first one-hour race on Saturday, the race car with the striking yellow-and-green livery and starting number 22 performed in an outside fashion. In the morning qualifying session, Lucas Auer placed the 550 hp car in second position on the grid and was extremely aggressive over the entire length of the race. At times visibly faster than the leader, South African Kelvin van der Linde, the 30-year-old Tyrolean attacked the Audi in front of him using every trick in the book, but was unable to find a way through to the finish.
"It was a tough race, but one that was a lot of fun," says the 2022 DTM runner-up after his first podium place of the season. "Hats off to Kelvin, who defended his position superbly. I tried everything, we were even briefly in contact at one point. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite enough and we were very similar in terms of pace. But I'm delighted to be on the podium again."
The second race on Sunday was characterized by the title decision between Kelvin van der Linde and Mirko Bortolotti as well as Auer’s team colleague from the Mercedes-AMG Team WINWARD, Maro Engel.
Once again, it was the MANN-FILTER Mamba that played a major role in the wild pace of the 20 GT3 racing cars from seven different brands. After quickly moving up from eighth on the grid to fifth, Auer was involved in a skirmish with a total of five cars after his mandatory pit stop and lost three positions in the final kilometers.
Nevertheless, the Tyrolean, whose race car was a total of 25 kilograms heavier than in Saturday's race following a technical reclassification of the Mercedes-AMG GT3 and the ballast for second place on the previous day, was not dissatisfied with eighth place. "It was a difficult race," admitted the nephew of Formula 1 legend Gerhard Berger. "The start and the first laps went well, but then the additional weight became increasingly noticeable. After the pit stop, I was stuck behind a Porsche and couldn't get past. Unfortunately, I was overtaken by three rivals in the end. It goes without saying that I would have liked to have come home in fifth place, but the race was okay as it was."
Filippina Manou, MANN-FILTER Sponsoring Manager, drew a positive conclusion from the last weekend of racing: "What a finale in Hockenheim, what a racing season overall! A big thank you to WINWARD Racing for this DTM year, in which we were occasionally accompanied by a dose of racing bad luck. The huge support from the world of yellow-and-green customers and fans means an incredible amount to us and is one of the great memories we will take with us from 2024."
The Italian Lamborghini driver Mirko Bortolotti won the title in the end. The 2025 DTM season kick-off will take place from April 25 to 27 at the Oschersleben Motorsport Arena.
