Liam Lawson sealed two impressive podium finishes at Assen this weekend to claim the 2021 DTM championship lead with just two rounds left in the season.
New Zealand driver Lawson went into the race weekend looking to build on his superb Red Bull Ring win double last time out and he started in impressive fashion with pole for Saturday’s race one. Despite carrying an extra 25kg of success weight, Lawson was in contention for the win until the end of an eventful race which featured two safety car phases – his #30 Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 eventually coming home third with Red Bull AlphaTauri AF Corse teammate Alex Albon a DNF after being hit by a rival at the start of the race.
On Sunday, Lawson and Thai driver Albon locked out the second row of the grid to start third and fourth respectively and, despite initially losing a position from the start and running fourth, clever strategy in the pit stop put Lawson out in second place on the road.
Lawson was then able to pull clear and pile pressure on race leader Lucas Auer (AUT) in the closing stages, but eventually had to settle for a close second place with Albon ending fifth in the #23 Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 sporting the colours of Red Bull’s premium fashion brand AlphaTauri. Lawson has now finished in the top three on eight occasions already this season and his second successive impressive weekend leaves him ahead of German Marco Wittmann by 10 points in the standings.
Albon is 71 points behind Lawson in sixth with Red Bull AlphaTauri AF Corse now having 279 points to its name after six races to extend its lead in the Team competition to 58 points with the 2021 season continuing from October 1-3 around the famous Hockenheim circuit in Germany.
Lawson, 19, said: “Taking the lead is really positive and now we need to try and maintain that in the last two rounds. Today the speed was good. I was flat out for 90 percent of the race and trying to catch Lucas Auer, but I couldn’t get close enough so congrats to him and his whole team.”
Albon, 25, said: “We have found a solution to fix the issues on the car compared to yesterday. We changed the car a lot overnight to get the car in a window which is a bit more normal and the pace came back. It’s good to know that we can get the car back up at the top.”
Race 1 result
1. Marco Wittmann (GER) – Walkenhorst Motorsport
2. Mirko Bortolotti (ITA) – T3 Motorsport
3. Liam Lawson (NZL) – Red Bull AlphaTauri AF Corse
4. Maximilian Götz (GER) – Mercedes-AMG Team HRT
5.Christian Klien (AUT) – JP Motorsport
DNF Alex Albon (THA) – Red Bull AlphaTauri AF Corse
Race 2 result
1. Lucas Auer (AUT) – Mercedes-AMG Team Winward
2. Liam Lawson (NZL) – Red Bull AlphaTauri AF Corse
3. Marco Wittmann (GER) – Walkenhorst Motorsport
4. Kelvin van der Linde (RSA) – Team Abt Sportsline
5. Alex Albon (THA) – Red Bull AlphaTauri AF Corse