Emil Frey Racing left the penultimate round of the 2026 DTM season at the Sachsenring with mixed emotions after Matteo Cairoli and Thierry Vermeulen experienced two very different days in their Ferrari 296 GT3 Evos.
Saturday proved more difficult as Cairoli and Vermeulen finished sixth and ninth respectively, unable to consistently match the leading pace around the 3.645-kilometre circuit. Sunday then presented an entirely different challenge, with wet qualifying leaving both Ferraris deep on the grid before contrasting tyre strategies and stronger race pace allowed Cairoli to charge to fourth and Vermeulen to seventh.
The results leave Cairoli provisionally fifth in the Drivers’ Championship with 150 points ahead of the Hockenheim finale, 47 behind leader Thomas Preining but only 23 away from Marco Wittmann in third. Vermeulen sits 10th on 99 points, while Emil Frey Racing remains firmly involved near the front of the Teams’ Championship after a season that has already included multiple victories and podiums.
Cairoli makes immediate progress in Saturday opener
Emil Frey Racing entered the weekend knowing outright pace could prove difficult after the Sachsenring practice sessions had placed Manthey firmly among the early favourites.
Cairoli nevertheless put the No. 14 Ferrari sixth on the grid for Race 1, while Vermeulen followed only two positions behind in eighth. Both made immediate progress when the lights went out, with Cairoli launching himself to third by the second corner and Vermeulen gaining a position to run seventh.
Cairoli’s early progress quickly placed him in a fight with Kelvin van der Linde for second, but the Italian lost ground during the exchange and dropped to fifth. A Safety Car then interrupted the opening phase when Bastian Buus became stranded in the gravel, with Cairoli fifth and Vermeulen sixth when the field regrouped.
Once racing resumed, Cairoli began applying pressure to championship contender Preining in the No. 91 Manthey Porsche. Vermeulen, meanwhile, lost sixth to Maro Engel and settled into seventh as the race began moving towards the first pit-stop window.
Pit-stop phase reshuffles Emil Frey Ferraris
Vermeulen became the first Emil Frey driver to stop and received a 6.9-second service, with Cairoli following one lap later in 6.5 seconds. Cairoli emerged alongside van der Linde but could not hold off the BMW, whose already-warmed tyres gave him an advantage as the Ferrari returned to racing speed.
Once the pit cycle had settled, Cairoli found himself seventh while Vermeulen occupied ninth. The Dutchman soon became involved in a particularly important fight with Nicki Thiim, who entered the weekend ahead of Cairoli in the championship order.
Vermeulen defended for several laps before Thiim eventually completed a move around the inside. Cairoli, meanwhile, faced pressure of his own as the race developed, losing touch with Engel ahead while Mirko Bortolotti closed from behind.
The Italian ultimately secured sixth, with Vermeulen crossing the line ninth. The result gave Emil Frey Racing two points-scoring cars but fell short of the kind of front-running form the squad had shown earlier in the year, including Cairoli’s victory at the Nürburgring.
Sunday qualifying leaves both Ferraris with work to do
Conditions changed dramatically before Sunday’s second race, with wet weather turning qualifying into a much more difficult exercise. Engel secured pole in the Mercedes-AMG, while both Emil Frey cars struggled to generate the performance needed to challenge near the front.
Cairoli originally qualified 17th and Vermeulen 18th during the wet Sachsenring Qualifying 2 session. Penalties elsewhere later promoted the pair to 14th and 15th on the grid, but they still faced a significant recovery task.
With further rain possible and the start delayed by 10 minutes, Emil Frey split its approach. Vermeulen started on wet tyres, allowing him to attack immediately on the damp surface, while Cairoli committed to slicks in anticipation of the circuit drying.
The contrasting calls produced very different opening laps. Vermeulen surged through the field to third almost immediately, taking advantage of the extra grip from his wet tyres. Cairoli initially went backwards following contact, but as conditions increasingly favoured slicks he began recovering rapidly and climbed towards seventh.
Strategy gamble briefly puts Vermeulen near the front
Vermeulen’s early progress demonstrated the immediate benefit of Emil Frey’s aggressive wet-tyre choice. Starting 15th and reaching third within the opening lap transformed his track position, but the strategy always depended on how quickly the Sachsenring dried.
As the racing line improved, his wet tyres began losing performance relative to the slick-shod cars. Emil Frey therefore brought him in among the earlier runners, completing a 5.9-second service as the team attempted to limit the time lost during the transition.
Although the gamble did not ultimately produce a podium, it allowed Vermeulen to spend the early stages in contention and gave him an opportunity to fight for meaningful points despite his lowly grid position.
That recovery continued after the first stops, with Vermeulen running seventh. For a driver who described Saturday as uncomfortable because of the Ferrari’s balance, Sunday provided a considerably stronger opportunity to extract performance from a difficult starting position.
Cairoli charges through field on slicks
Cairoli’s strategy took longer to reward him but became increasingly effective as the track dried. After his difficult opening phase, the Italian began moving forward rapidly and showed some of the strongest pace in the field.
His first stop took 6.4 seconds, allowing him to emerge as the leading driver among those who had already completed their service. Cairoli then set the fastest lap on Lap 11 before overtaking Ricardo Feller for third on track and beginning to close on Preining.
After the opening pit cycle had fully developed, Cairoli sat fourth despite starting only 14th. The recovery reflected the pace that has made his rookie DTM campaign one of the season’s standout stories. He entered 2026 aiming to “perform at the highest level” in his first DTM season and has subsequently established himself as a multiple race winner and championship contender.
The second round of stops saw Vermeulen serviced in 6.7 seconds and Cairoli in 7.7. With the field compressed again, the final part of the race became increasingly chaotic.
Late Safety Cars deny Cairoli podium opportunity
An incident involving Thiim and Jules Gounon brought out a Safety Car with fewer than 10 minutes remaining and erased the gaps built during the middle of the race.
Cairoli attempted to capitalise by attacking Preining, but the move narrowly failed and ultimately cost him a position. Another incident involving van der Linde then produced a further Safety Car, setting up a one-lap sprint to the finish.
With little margin remaining, Cairoli concentrated on protecting fourth from Engel and successfully kept the Mercedes-AMG behind to complete a strong recovery from the seventh row. Vermeulen crossed the line seventh, ensuring both Emil Frey cars scored again after a race in which their starting positions had threatened to leave the team with considerably less.
The final classification saw Ben Dörr take a surprise victory ahead of Preining and Feller in a chaotic Sachsenring Race 2, while Cairoli’s fourth represented one of the stronger recoveries among the leading championship contenders.
Frey-Hilti keeps focus on possible top-three finish
Team Principal Lorenz Frey-Hilti acknowledged that Emil Frey Racing’s outright championship prospects have weakened heading into the finale, but believes a top-three finish remains achievable.
“Our chances of winning the overall championship title are admittedly not so strong anymore, but a Top-3 finish should still be possible. Anything can still happen and we will keep fighting until the very end. Saturday was a mediocre race, but Sunday can be described as a satisfying conclusion. Sunday’s qualifying went against our expectations, and despite the difficult starting positions we did a good job. Thierry’s aggressive strategy almost paid fully off. For Matteo it was the right call, and it was a shame that we ultimately lost the position to Ricardo Feller due to Thomas Preining’s delayed restarts. On Saturday we were simply lacking the pace of the frontrunners, even if the red flag in qualifying did play into our hands.”
Cairoli’s current position keeps that objective realistic. He provisionally sits fifth, only two points behind Lucas Auer in fourth and 23 behind Wittmann in third. With qualifying bonuses and points from both Hockenheim races still available, substantial movement remains possible during the finale.
His title hopes are far more remote, particularly with Preining now holding a sizeable advantage, but Cairoli’s position still represents an impressive achievement in his first DTM season.
Emil Frey satisfied with Sunday response
Technical Director Jürg Flach also highlighted the contrast between the two days. Saturday exposed a lack of outright pace, leaving the team largely focused on limiting losses, whereas Sunday showed how strategy and execution could compensate for difficult qualifying positions.
“It was a difficult weekend for us. From the outset it was clear that we were not competitive enough, which made the results in Race 1 with sixth and ninth the maximum we could expect. Sunday’s qualifying was a disappointment, as we were unable to position ourselves well in the wet conditions. In the race we chose different strategies, which led to a satisfying result in the end. The drivers and the team did a fantastic job!”
The Sachsenring weekend therefore followed a familiar theme from parts of Emil Frey’s season. The Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo has demonstrated enough performance to win races when conditions align, but extracting that level consistently across qualifying and the races has proved more difficult.
Earlier in the year, Cairoli converted pole into his maiden victory at Zandvoort as Vermeulen joined him on the podium, producing a memorable double podium for Emil Frey Racing. The team will hope to rediscover that level when the championship concludes at Hockenheim.
Cairoli targets double Hockenheim podium
Cairoli viewed the weekend positively despite narrowly missing the Race 2 podium. His Sunday recovery ensured he remained among the leading group in the Drivers’ standings and gave him another meaningful points haul before the finale.
“In the end it turned out to be a positive weekend. We scored points, which is always good, but it is also a shame that we didn’t manage to reach the podium. With only two laps to go it wasn’t the ideal scenario, but I was probably in the wrong place at the wrong time. When you consider where we started from, I’m fairly satisfied. We have two more races, and I would love to reach the podium in both at Hockenheim. We will fight until the very last lap.”
His Hockenheim target comes after a season in which he has already demonstrated an ability to win at very different circuits. Cairoli took his first DTM victory at Zandvoort and later added another major success at the Nürburgring, where he converted pole into a controlled win amid a race of heavy attrition.
Those performances have kept him in the leading championship group deep into his rookie campaign, even if Preining, Engel and Wittmann now hold the stronger positions entering the finale.
Vermeulen continues to prioritise development
Vermeulen, meanwhile, left the Sachsenring concentrating on what he could learn from a difficult weekend. The Dutchman scored in both races but never felt fully comfortable on Saturday, while Sunday’s tyre gamble created an opportunity to fight much further forward before conditions changed.
“The Sachsenring was a difficult weekend. In the first race we struggled a little with the balance and I didn’t feel comfortable in the car. Qualifying for the second race wasn’t good either, but the race itself was really very exciting. It certainly wasn’t perfect from my side, but I tried to extract the maximum and stay out of trouble. Unfortunately, we lost another position at the end, but we scored points and I learned a lot again. These races are very important for my learning curve. We’re now hoping for a podium in Hockenheim and looking forward to seeing what we can still achieve.”
His emphasis on continued progression mirrors the objectives he outlined before the season, when he discussed the importance of consistency and development during his fourth DTM campaign with Emil Frey Racing.
Vermeulen heads to Hockenheim provisionally 10th in the Drivers’ standings, while his points alongside Cairoli have helped Emil Frey remain among the leading teams throughout the year.
Emil Frey shifts focus to Hockenheim finale
The Sachsenring ultimately produced neither the podium nor the championship gains Emil Frey Racing would have wanted, but Sunday’s recovery prevented a difficult qualifying session from developing into a damaging weekend.
Cairoli remains within reach of a top-three championship finish, while Vermeulen will target a return to the podium after demonstrating flashes of competitive pace throughout the year. Emil Frey Racing also continues to fight near the front of the Teams’ Championship, while Ferrari remains involved in a close Manufacturers’ battle.
Hockenheim will therefore provide one final opportunity for the Swiss squad to convert the performance it has repeatedly shown in 2026 into silverware. Cairoli has already made his objective clear with two podiums in his sights, while Vermeulen hopes to end another year of development with a breakthrough result of his own.
After a Sachsenring weekend defined by a subdued Saturday and a much stronger Sunday recovery, Emil Frey Racing heads to the finale determined to ensure its 2026 campaign ends on the latter note.
