Victory in the penultimate race of this year’s DTM season and pole position for the final round on Sunday at the Hockenheimring was enough for Thomas Preining to take home an early drivers’ championship title. The 25-year-old works driver from Linz in Austria contests the DTM in a 911 GT3 R fielded by the Manthey EMA customer squad. Moreover, thanks to Preining’s result as well as second place for Norwegian Dennis Olsen, Manthey EMA was already crowned champion in the team category on Saturday, while Porsche has won the manufacturer’s title in the DTM for the first time in its motor racing history.
Thomas Preining wrapped up the season with a masterful performance: Mere hours after securing the 2023 DTM championship title early with a pole position in qualifying, the German topped off his impressive performance with a first-place finish in Sunday’s race. For two pole positions and two race wins, the 25-year-old Porsche works driver collected the maximum points’ haul (56) at the final weekend at the Hockenheimring in front of 88,000 spectators.
The Porsche customer squad and the Stuttgart-based sports car manufacturer already secured their titles on Saturday with a one-two finish by Preining and Norway’s Dennis Olsen. The first place in the qualifying of Sunday’s race was enough for Preining to win the drivers’ championship as well. The Austrian came up through the ranks of the Porsche Motorsport programme for young racing drivers: in 2017 he was appointed Porsche Junior and in 2018 he won the Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland. In 2019, the Austrian was promoted to Porsche Young Professional and this season he worked, among other things, as a test and development driver for the TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E works team. He has been a member of the Porsche works driver squad since 2021 and has contested the DTM since 2022..
“I’m almost at a loss for words,” admits Thomas Laudenbach, Vice President Porsche Motorsport. “It was a fantastic weekend in every way – and we managed to win all three DTM titles – the drivers’, the teams’ and the manufacturers’ championships. Thomas Preining proved himself to be a worthy title winner with this weekend’s performance and proved once again how much he deserves this success. I’d like to take this opportunity to expressly thank all the drivers, the teams and our crew at Porsche Motorsport in Weissach. Our package was spot on this year and made this fantastic result possible.”
Full results: https://www.dtm.com/en/results
Edited Porsche Factory Press Release
Pictures & Video courtesy Porsche AG
