DTM | 2026 Nürburgring | Race 1 | Cairoli claims third victory as nine cars retire

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The DTM returned to the Nürburgring for Race 1 of the sixth round of the 2026 season, with the championship battle entering a crucial stage. Matteo Cairoli put himself in the best possible position after securing his second pole position of the season for Emil Frey Racing, narrowly beating Thomas Preining by just 0.036 seconds.

Lucas Auer lined up third alongside Marco Wittmann, while championship leader Maro Engel started from sixth. With several title contenders spread across the grid and tyre degradation expected to play an important role, Race 1 at the Nürburgring promised plenty of action around the Eifel circuit.

Race Control kept busy during the first 15 minutes of the race with multiple retirements

Cairoli led the pack into Turn 1 and held off Preining, while the Porsche driver came under pressure from Auer. However, Auer lost ground during the attempted overtake and dropped back to P5. Meanwhile, Kelvin van der Linde received a penalty lap for a false start. Both Ford Mustangs also drove through the pit lane after failing to comply with the official testing regulations. Race Control remained busy as officials placed Marco Mapelli and Mirko Bortolotti under investigation after Mapelli appeared to force Bortolotti off the track. The contact ultimately forced Bortolotti to retire from the race. Mapelli then made contact with Timo Glock, with the German receiving three penalty laps for the incident.

Meanwhile, Ricardo Feller ran in P8 and kept the pressure on Jules Gounon in the fight for P7 as he looked to gain another position and add more points to his tally. Arjun Maini became the next retirement after his Ford appeared to develop an issue. Shortly afterwards, Race Control placed Nicki Thiim and Tom Kalender under investigation following contact between the pair. Thiim was forced off the track, while Kalender appeared to pick up damage in the collision and later retired. Finn Wiebelhaus then joined his teammate on the sidelines, bringing his DTM Race 1 at the Nürburgring to an early end.

Pit stops only change the order slightly

With just 20 minutes of DTM Race 1 at the Nürburgring completed, six cars had already retired, with Timo Glock becoming the latest driver to DNF. Meanwhile, Race Control handed Nicki Thiim a penalty lap for forcing Tom Kalender off the track.

At the front, Matteo Cairoli comfortably led Thomas Preining by almost three seconds. Several drivers made their first stops as soon as the pit window opened. Lucas Auer completed an almost perfect pit stop but could not get ahead of Marco Wittmann, who had entered the pits just before him. Preining became the first of the leading trio to pit, with Maro Engel following before Cairoli made his stop around a lap later.

Ben Dörr gained the most from the opening round of pit stops, overtaking Auer to move into an effective P4 among the drivers who had already stopped, while Bastian Buus and Kelvin van der Linde still needed to make their stops. Meanwhile, Jules Gounon made contact with Ricardo Feller, sending the Porsche spinning into the wall. Despite the impact, Feller managed to continue in the race.

Cairoli strengthens lead while Van der Linde retires

Van der Linde seemed to have a problem with his car as he reported issues with the suspension of his BMW during his pit stop, which seemed to be a bigger problem as he had to retire the car a lap later, making him the seventh retirement of the race, with 20 minutes left on the clock. Buus went into the pits to do his mandatory pit stop, being the last of the cars that still needed to go into the pits, coming out in P13 behind the Lamborghini of Christian Engelhart, who replaces Maximilian Paul for this weekend.

Meanwhile, Feller started to close the gap to Thiim in front of him, trying to overtake the Dane for P9, while Cairoli in front kept a comfortable lead, keeping Preining 9 seconds behind him. After 2 rounds of fighting, Feller was able to overtake the Dane, though Thiim tried to take his position back. The Aston Martin driver wasn’t able to as he broke too late, making the Dane lose important points in the ongoing championship fight.

Late retirements as Cairoli claims win from pole

With the closing stages of DTM Race 1 at the Nürburgring starting, Buus took his 4-round fresher tyres advantage to overtake Thierry Vermeulen for P11 and close the gap to Thiim in P10 immediately and overtake the Dane as well, climbing up to P10. Meanwhile, Vermeulen was giving a warning for changing the lane too often under braking. With only three turns to go, Engelhart and Vermeulen made contact with each other, going into the gravel and joining the other 7 retired cars, making it nine retirements for DTM Race 1 at the Nürburgring.

Matteo Cairoli claimed his third DTM race victory during his rookie season, leading the race from start to finish, with Preining and Wittmann finishing the podium at the Nürburgring.