Liam Lawson started the first of two races at the Nurburgring in 11th position and immediately got to work climbing up the places.
Off the line Lawson was able to hold his position after he accelerated into the inside line of the first corner.
His Ferrari was quick and nimble enough through the first twisty section but he stayed 11th. Until, the young Kiwi got his elbows out and pushed his way into the points scoring positions heading into the first straight section.
A yellow flag occurred after a mid-pack scuffle ended with Max Buhk shunted off track from behind. Lawson narrowly missed the crash and benefitted by moving into 8th.
This incident caused two drivers to retire and a safety was deployed.
Proceeding the safety car period, Lawson was in full attack mode.
As the cars sped down into the first corner, once again with green flags flying, Liam kept a hard outside line as he went three cars wide alongside his teammate Albon and the Mercedes of Max Gotz.
Initially, Liam held 8th but crept up into 7th after bettering Albon through turn 6.
The race seemed to have played into Liams strengths at that point with his sublime racecraft already moving him into the top 10.
But his good luck had run out.
Mid-pack racing can often be opportunistic. With limited points on offer, drivers are willing to risk it all to move up just one spot.
Unfortunately for Liam that opportunistic nature of his competitors meant he was spun around mid race and his points haul was ruined.
Guest driver Markus Winkelhock pushed his Audi a little too far up the inside line and caught the back of Lawson’s Ferrari.
His RedBull machine span out, but with minimal damage (just a scuff on the rear quarter) he was able to rejoin the race.
Markus picked up a sizeable penalty for his daring move and finished 19th. But the frustrating incident meant Lawson finished 13th, 3 positions off the points.
To add salt to his wounds, Audi driver Kelvin Van Der Linde did not put a foot wrong all race after claiming pole position earlier in the day.
He took home all the possible points of the day after an impeccable performance from pole to victory.
The mid-race thwarting spin meant that Lawson failed to score any points and unfortunately he moved down to 3rd in the championship standings.
German driver Max Gotz finished 5th taking home 12 points and moving him into 2nd place.
Van Der Linde now has 129 points, Max Gotz has 84 points in 2nd and, Liam Lawson stays on 80 points moving down to 3rd.
Tomorrow Lawson will be striving for a better, more fortunate qualifying and race. Now he knows the race pace is there, he just needs to get himself a decent qualifying spot.
Qualifying 2 and race 2 will be on later today NZ time at the same times as yesterday (quali 8:15pm & race 11:15pm).
Let us see what Lawson can do in his second outing at the Nurburgring for round 4 of the DTM championship!
Featured image source: YouTube.com/dtm
