DTM rivals doubt Lamborghini’s “overperformance” in Spielberg races

Mirko Bortolotti’s pace in the SSR Lamborghini surprised his DTM rivals at Spielberg.

Despite being hit by a series of blows under the series’ Balance of Performance system, Bortolotti was able to follow up his victory in the wet/dry opening race with pole position and a fourth place in the second stage of the meeting.

This allowed him to take the championship lead from Abt Audi rival Kelvin van der Linde, putting him in first place for this month’s title decider in Hockenheim.

Although Bortolotti is widely recognized as one of the fastest drivers in Lamborghini’s factory squad, many felt that his Huracan GT3 EVO2 was barely hampered by the enormous ballast he was carrying – and that the Italian even had more time to spare.

In Sunday’s race, three-time DTM champion Rene Rast followed Bortolotti in the opening stint, where all drivers in the top 10 had to start on used qualifying tires.

Schubert’s BMW driver, who eventually won the race after pitting Bortolotti, said: “I overtook Mirko, but as soon as he saw I was coming he increased the pace and suddenly drove extremely fast.

“He still had something in his pocket that he could have used to top it all off. That’s something we need to look at.

“It was very noticeable that Mirko suddenly rode green (personal best) sectors, even though he was 65 kilos heavier than me the day before.”

Mirko Bortolotti, SSR Performance

Photo by: Alexander Trienitz

Bortolotti entered Sunday’s race with 45kg of extra weight on his car compared to when he won on Saturday, a combination of BoP changes mid-weekend and the extra success ballast resulting from his win.

Rast’s BMW, meanwhile, had been given a 20kg break under BoP, resulting in an overnight swing of 65kg between the two cars.

When the German driver passed Luca Engstler’s Grasser Lamborghini for second place in the opening stint, moving directly behind Bortolotti, the latter was immediately able to increase his pace and set times in the 1m29.7s range.

Even Rast’s team boss Torsten Schubert was surprised by Bortolotti’s speed, as the Lamborghini was carrying a total of 120kg of ballast, making the car heavier at any point this season.

Moreover, Spielberg is not a track that particularly suits the Huracan.

“If I can still blow away with 120 kg in it, i.e. another 15 kilos after qualifying and the 20 kilos of extra weight (under success ballast), then those organizing the event have to wonder whether this might really be a case of overachievement.” he said.

It wasn’t just Bortolotti’s performance on Sunday that caught the attention of his rivals. The 34-year-old also dominated the opening race of the weekend on Saturday after qualifying fourth.

The hour-long race started on a damp track, so drivers initially stayed away from still-wet curbs. But a dry line soon appeared and the entire field switched to slicks during their mandatory pit stops.

Mirko Bortolotti, SSR Performance Lamborghini Huracán EVO GT3

Photo by: Alexander Trienitz

Bortolotti was closely followed by Mercedes driver Maro Engel in the second stint, but managed to fend him off and take his first win of the year with a lead of 1.3 seconds.

After the race, Bortolotti said the second half of the race was “a qualifying stint” and that he “pushed from the first to the last lap.”

Interestingly enough, however, Engel disputes his DTM rival’s comments.

“At the start of the stint we all deviated from the ideal line and at one point I decided to take the ideal line everywhere except Turn 3 where the apex was still wet,” he told Autosport’s sister title Motorsport-Total . com.

“In other words: drive onto the outside of the curb in Turn 1, as you would on a dry road surface, and brake on the ideal line in Turn 4. And I saw that Mirko didn’t do that.

“And he was still extremely fast and pulled away from me at the end. That made it clear to me on Saturday that Mirko would be very strong with his package on Sunday (despite the extra weight).”

He added: “If you look at the weekend and the changes over the weekend and see what performances were still there, you have to come to the conclusion that they just managed it on Saturday.”

There were also suggestions that Bortolotti had deliberately slowed down on Sunday to finish outside the top three and avoid a success ballast in the Hockenheim final. While Van der Linde finished one place behind him in fifth place, Bortolotti still managed to increase his points lead over the South African.

Podium: Race winner Mirko Bortolotti, SSR Performance

Photo by: Alexander Trienitz

“That’s a tactic,” said a paddock insider, who asked not to be named. “He deliberately took him out, otherwise he would have won the race. And everyone would have seen that the Lamborghini BoP was wrong.”

That theory may be wrong, however, as Bortolotti braked too late on his outlap and went wide into Turn 2, showing that he was indeed pushing the car close to the limit.

Nevertheless, the Huracan’s BoP categorization will remain a topic of conversation when the DTM returns to Germany for the all-important finale on October 19-20.