Thomas Preining and Maro Engel won DTM openers at Red Bull Ring

As I continue to insist no matter what Class 1 nostalgists say, the DTM is the best GT3 racing series on Earth, and that makes it worth the switch. I’ve figured out why that is, too. Precisely because of its glorious history, the DTM reached such a high level of funding, quality, and competition that it made GT3 a perfect financial compromise. It’s the only series in the world where they can afford to prepare the cars to the most perfect possible extent and afford to crash them into each other. That has attracted the world’s best GT3 manufacturers and drivers to compete, and its race format is perfectly calibrated to make that as entertaining as it sounds.

The Red Bull Ring is such a good track to start the season at, and both races were great. Maro Engel almost won both of them, but he had a bad stop in race 1 that Thomas Preining took advantage of in his Manthey Porsche. Maro got his the next day. It was his first DTM win since 2023.