In a race of his own from start to finish, Lawson has claimed yet another win in the DTM championship.
Under the rolling start Lawson sped off into the lead from the get go and drove his own race creating a gap of almost 2 seconds until his compulsory pit stop which he took on lap 9.
Liam came in and was rewarded with an efficient and quick stop of 6.5s. Exiting pitlane the Kiwi came out a net 1st ahead of the early pitters but was on track in 8th position.
He had a clear track ahead so there was time to heat his tyres up and keep his head down for the remaining 30 laps.
Into the last 10 minutes Lawson pushed to try and gain his first place position battling to get past Nico Muller.
Muller was the second to last car to pit, keeping an on track 1st place position, waiting all the way until the final 7 minutes to go in. After pitting Muller retired his car for unknown reasons.
Meanwhile in Lawson’s rear view mirror Max Gotz overtook Rockenfeller to take net 2nd place and eventually actual 2nd place after Mullers pitstop.
But clear air ahead meant that Lawson really started to push for the final 6 minutes.
Further back in the field on lap 34, Albon was closely watching the championship leader Kelvin Van der Linde who was trying to move into 4th with Phillip Ellis ahead.
Van der Linde overcooked it and an opportunistic Albon shot down the inside and moved closer to the podium positions.
On the last lap a similar incident happened with the roles reversed. Alex tried to make a move around the edge of Ellis but couldn’t make it after trying for 2 corners.
All of a sudden, Kelvin took his chance to shoot up the inside of Alex’s Ferrari. Contact was made from Van der Linde against the left side of Albon’s AlphaTauri machine.
The incident was later referred to the stewards and put under investigation.
But with the clear track in front of him and a fluctuating 0.8-1s gap with Max Gotz behind Lawson continued to push and came across the line for the win!
Lawson interview:
Were you nervous seeing the pink machine of Gotz in the rear view mirror? :
“Gotz was catching. And watching the numbers he was catching me a lot at the end there. I don’t know why he said he had no chance?”.
After today’s win what are you thinking about for tomorrow?:
“Tomorrow we will both[Lawson and Gotz] have added weight so we will see what happens”.
How does it feel to be at the Red Bull ring with the fans back in the grandstands?:
“Love the atmosphere here with the fans being able to come back. I can really feel the support from the fans, being in a Red bull at the Red Bull ring is obviously an amazing experience”.
What an extraordinary result for the young Kiwi, accumulating all the possible points from Saturday. Tomorrow his Ferrari will have 25 kilos of added winners ballast weight.
So, we will see what he can do with the disadvantage. His pace has been unmatchable in practice, qualifying, and in the race!
What will tomorrows qualifying and race produce?
Featured image source: youtube.com/dtm