The 2026 DTM championship changed hands again after an unpredictable third round at the Lausitzring. Matteo Cairoli became the new Drivers’ Championship leader with 78 points after claiming his second victory of the season in Sunday’s Race 2.
Maro Engel and Lucas Auer sit only one point behind the Emil Frey Racing driver. Both Mercedes-AMG drivers have 77 points, with Engel occupying second place ahead of Auer in the official standings. Marco Wittmann follows in fourth on 71, while Race 1 winner Ben Dörr completes the leading five with 67.
The Lausitzring weekend also changed the order in the Teams’ Championship. Schubert Motorsport now leads Emil Frey Racing and Winward Racing, while Mercedes-AMG retains a sizeable advantage in the Manufacturers’ standings despite strong gains from BMW and Ferrari.
Lausitzring produces major championship changes
Nicki Thiim opened the competitive action by setting a new qualifying lap record and claiming Aston Martin’s first DTM pole position. Arjun Maini joined him on the front row, while Auer collected one championship point by qualifying third.
However, changing weather transformed Race 1. Several drivers gambled on slick tyres despite the wet circuit, while others selected wet-weather tyres and initially moved through the field. A decisive Full Course Yellow then handed a significant advantage to Marco Mapelli, Dörr and Ricardo Feller after they entered the pits moments before officials neutralised the race.
Mapelli crossed the line first, but a 15-second penalty for exceeding the Full Course Yellow speed limit dropped him to second. Dörr consequently inherited his maiden DTM victory, while Feller retained third despite receiving the same sanction. Thiim finished fourth ahead of Wittmann, Auer and Jules Gounon.
Maini then secured Ford’s first pole position of the DTM’s GT3 era in Qualifying 2. Cairoli qualified second, with Thiim and Finn Wiebelhaus completing the first two rows.
Cairoli used an undercut to move ahead of Maini during Race 2 before resisting Thiim’s late challenge. The Italian won by only 0.413 seconds, while Wiebelhaus passed Maini during the closing laps to claim his maiden DTM podium. The victory made Cairoli the first driver to win twice during the opening three rounds of the season.
Cairoli takes the 2026 DTM championship lead
Cairoli arrived at the Lausitzring fifth in the standings with 43 points. He added eight points by finishing eighth in Race 1, two points for qualifying second on Sunday and another 25 through his Race 2 victory. Consequently, he gained 35 points and climbed four positions to take the championship lead on 78. His victories at Zandvoort and the Lausitzring also make him the only multiple race winner after the first six contests.
Engel drops from first to second despite adding points in both races. The Winward Racing driver finished 15th in the amended Race 1 classification before recovering to seventh on Sunday. He now has 77 points, leaving him one behind Cairoli. Meanwhile, Auer also holds 77 points after finishing sixth in Race 1 and 11th in Race 2. The Landgraf Motorsport driver added a further point by qualifying third on Saturday but lost the championship lead that he had briefly taken during the weekend.
Only one point now covers the leading three drivers. Meanwhile, Wittmann remains close in fourth after recovering from 18th to fifth in Race 1 and finishing eighth on Sunday. He leaves the Lausitzring with 71 points, seven behind Cairoli.
Dörr and Thiim surge into contention
Dörr produced one of the weekend’s largest gains. He entered Round 3 sixth with 42 points but added 25 through his inherited Race 1 victory. Although he finished outside the points on Sunday, the result moved him to fifth with 67.
Thiim gained even more ground across the weekend. The Comtoyou Racing driver began the round 10th on 24 points before collecting four qualifying points, 13 for fourth in Race 1 and 20 for second in Race 2. His 37-point haul lifted him to sixth with 61. Thiim also delivered Aston Martin’s first DTM pole and its first podium with Comtoyou Racing, establishing himself as another potential championship contender.
Thomas Preining remains seventh on 56 points after finishing 12th and 10th. Kelvin van der Linde follows on 54 after scoring in both races, while Thierry Vermeulen holds ninth with 46.
Ford drivers make significant progress
Maini enjoyed his strongest round of the season. The HRT Ford Racing driver qualified second and ninth-place points followed in Race 1 before he secured pole position for Sunday’s contest. Although Maini lost the lead during the first pit-stop sequence and later dropped behind Thiim and Wiebelhaus, fourth place completed a 25-point weekend. He climbed from 13th to 10th and now holds 43 points.
Wiebelhaus also made a considerable gain. The rookie did not score in Race 1, but his late pass on Maini delivered third place on Sunday and Ford’s first DTM podium since returning to the championship. He moves from 14th to 14th in the standings but more than doubles his total from 15 to 31 points.
Mapelli is level with Wiebelhaus after adding 21 points. His Race 1 penalty denied him victory, but second place still moved him from 18th to 13th. Feller also rises sharply after scoring 19 points across the two races and now sits 11th with 42.
2026 DTM Drivers’ Standings after Round 3 at the Lausitzring
- Matteo Cairoli (Emil Frey Racing) – 78 points
- Maro Engel (Mercedes-AMG Team Ravenol) – 77 points
- Lucas Auer (Mercedes-AMG Team Landgraf) – 77 points
- Marco Wittmann (Schubert Motorsport) – 71 points
- Ben Dörr (Dörr Motorsport) – 67 points
- Nicki Thiim (Comtoyou Racing) – 61 points
- Thomas Preining (Manthey) – 56 points
- Kelvin van der Linde (Schubert Motorsport) – 54 points
- Thierry Vermeulen (Emil Frey Racing) – 46 points
- Arjun Maini (HRT Ford Racing) – 43 points
- Ricardo Feller (Manthey) – 42 points
- Jules Gounon (Mercedes-AMG Team MANN-FILTER) – 39 points
- Marco Mapelli (Red Bull Team Abt) – 31 points
- Finn Wiebelhaus (HRT Ford Racing) – 31 points
- Luca Engstler (Red Bull Team Abt) – 30 points
- Mirko Bortolotti (TGI Team by GRT) – 24 points
- Tom Kalender (Mercedes-AMG Team Landgraf) – 19 points
- Timo Glock (Dörr Motorsport) – 13 points
- Bastian Buus (Land-Motorsport) – 12 points
- Maximilian Paul (TGI Team by GRT) – 5 points
- Nicolas Baert (Comtoyou Racing) – 0 points
Schubert Motorsport takes the Teams’ Championship lead
Schubert Motorsport entered the weekend second behind Winward Racing but scored with both cars in both races. Wittmann finished fifth and eighth, while Van der Linde took 10th and ninth. Those four top-10 finishes added 32 points to Schubert’s previous total and moved the BMW team into first with 119. It now holds a four-point advantage over Emil Frey Racing.
Cairoli’s victory helped Emil Frey Racing climb from third to second. The team added 38 points across the weekend and now sits on 115, only four behind Schubert. Vermeulen supported Cairoli by scoring in both races.
Meanwhile, Winward Racing drops from first to third with 113 points. Engel scored in both contests, while Gounon finished seventh in Race 1 but retired from Race 2 after receiving a penalty during the opening pit-stop sequence. Furthermore, Manthey remains fourth after Feller’s Race 1 podium and further points from Preining. The Porsche team now has 97 points, four ahead of Landgraf Motorsport.
HRT Ford Racing made the largest gain further down the table. Maini and Wiebelhaus combined for 29 points in Race 2 alone, lifting the team from seventh to seventh on 67 but significantly reducing the gap to Dörr Motorsport.
2026 DTM Teams’ Standings after Round 3 at the Lausitzring
- Schubert Motorsport – 119 points
- Emil Frey Racing – 115 points
- Winward Racing – 113 points
- Manthey – 97 points
- Landgraf Motorsport – 93 points
- Dörr Motorsport – 78 points
- HRT Ford Racing – 67 points
- Abt Sportsline – 60 points
- Comtoyou Racing – 57 points
- GRT Grasser-Racing-Team – 29 points
- Land-Motorsport – 12 points
Schubert’s consistent double-points finishes moved the BMW team ahead of Emil Frey Racing and previous leader Winward Racing.
Mercedes-AMG remains ahead as BMW and Ferrari close
Mercedes-AMG retains control of the Manufacturers’ Championship with 161 points. Auer, Engel and Gounon continued to score across the weekend, although the manufacturer did not place a car on the podium in either race. Meanwhile, BMW moves to 123 points after Wittmann and Van der Linde produced four top-10 finishes. However, Ferrari now sits only two points behind on 121 after Cairoli’s victory and Vermeulen’s double points finish.
Porsche remains fourth with 107 points. Feller’s podium provided its largest return of the weekend, while Preining and Buus added further points in Race 2.
Lamborghini made the greatest positional gain. Mapelli’s second place, followed by strong Sunday results for Mirko Bortolotti and Luca Engstler, moved the manufacturer from seventh to fifth with 85 points.
McLaren follows only one point behind on 84 after Dörr’s victory. Ford rises to 78 following Wiebelhaus’s podium and Maini’s two strong qualifying performances, while Aston Martin closes the order with 67 after Thiim’s breakthrough weekend.
2026 DTM Manufacturers’ Standings after Round 3 at the Lausitzring
- Mercedes-AMG – 161 points
- BMW – 123 points
- Ferrari – 121 points
- Porsche – 107 points
- Lamborghini – 85 points
- McLaren – 84 points
- Ford – 78 points
- Aston Martin – 67 points
Mercedes-AMG maintains a 38-point advantage, but only two points separate BMW and Ferrari in the fight for second.
Lausitzring tightens the 2026 DTM title fight
Round 3 produced another major shift at the top of the Drivers’ Championship. Cairoli transformed fifth place into the championship lead, but Engel and Auer remain only one point behind. Wittmann, Dörr and Thiim also remain within 17 points of first place.
The Teams’ Championship presents an equally close contest. Only six points cover Schubert Motorsport, Emil Frey Racing and Winward Racing, while Manthey and Landgraf remain close enough to capitalise on any difficult weekend for the leading three.
Mercedes-AMG still holds a more comfortable Manufacturers’ Championship advantage. Nevertheless, BMW and Ferrari have strengthened their positions, while Lamborghini, McLaren, Ford and Aston Martin all produced landmark results at the Lausitzring.
With three rounds completed, no driver or team has established control. Instead, the Lausitzring confirmed that the 2026 DTM season continues to develop into a closely contested fight across drivers, teams and manufacturers.
