• Ayhancan Güven and Thomas Preining score points at the Red Bull Ring with sixth (#91) and seventh (#90) places 
• Morris Schuring missed out on a points finish in Spielberg but remains in second place in the 2025 rookie championship
• With a 16-point lead, Manthey will travel to the final round at Hockenheim at the beginning of October as the leading team in the DTM team standings

Spielberg. A challenging DTM guest appearance for Manthey in Austria: With sixth place for Thomas Preining (Austria) in Saturday's race and seventh place on Sunday for Ayhancan Güven (Turkey), the team only scored two points results in Styria. A puncture prevented Preining from achieving a better result on Sunday, while Güven struggled on Saturday at the Red Bull Ring with the success ballast in his car. Morris Schuring (Netherlands) failed to score points in either race, but remains in touch with the lead in the 2025 Rookie Championship, trailing by just seven points. Manthey maintained its lead in the DTM team championship ahead of the last two races of the season and travels to the season finale at Hockenheim with an 16-point lead over Schubert Motorsport.

In the first qualifying session in Spielberg, the Porsches lacked the decisive pace, especially in the first sector of the 4,326-metre Grand Prix circuit, which is characterised by a long, uphill straight. As a result, the three Manthey drivers started Saturday's race from positions 16 (Preining), 19 (Güven) and 21 (Schuring). The race started in fair weather and quickly turned chaotic, with the three Porsche 911 GT3 R initially losing several positions and having to start a chase to catch up. Local hero Thomas Preining came into the pits in 15th place five minutes before the pit stop window closed. Thanks to a carefully chosen overcut strategy and a quick tyre change of just 6.4 seconds, the Austrian then worked his way up the field. Ten minutes before the end of the race, he was already in eighth place and ultimately benefited from Jack Aitken's late retirement and Jules Gounon's drop back. He crossed the finish line in sixth place – ten positions better than his starting position. Meanwhile, Güven and Schuring were unable to make up any places after their mandatory pit stops. Güven, who had additional ballast on board due to his Sachsenring victory, finished the race in 16th place, while Schuring saw the chequered flag in 19th.

The second qualifying session of the weekend went more smoothly for Preining than on the previous day, with him lining up fifth on the grid. Güven also secured a place in the top ten with ninth place. Schuring, on the other hand, had to start the race from the back of the field after a puncture ended his qualifying session prematurely. The start of the sprint race was turbulent: Preining's Porsche was hit by the starting number 22 (Auer) on the first lap, forcing him to make an unscheduled pit stop with a puncture. Despite strong mandatory pit stops, the Austrian was unable to make up for the time lost and crossed the finish line one lap down in 21st place. Meanwhile, Güven was involved in thrilling battles for seventh and eighth place. Two quick pit stops rounded off a strong performance, with the Turkish driver crossing the finish line in seventh place and collecting valuable championship points in Styria. The Manthey pit crew also completed the tyre changes on car number 92 very quickly, allowing Schuring to make up places in the pit lane. He initially finished the race in 14th place, but was subsequently relegated to 18th place with a time penalty due to contact with car number eight (Baert).

"Saturday at the Red Bull Ring did not go well for us, as we lacked pace. Fortunately, we were able to limit the damage with Thomas. On Sunday, he was unlucky, as has been the case before this season. However, we were able to secure a top ten result with Ayhancan. Nevertheless, the results were far from ideal overall. All we can do now is try to keep up and hope for some luck at Hockenheim. It's always frustrating when you have to rely on luck, but that's unfortunately the situation in the championship at the moment. It's great to see how close the drivers' championship is, but of course we would have liked to have been further up the field after this weekend," explains Nicolas Raeder, Managing Director of Manthey Racing GmbH. "We arrived with big ambitions and two drivers in the title fight, and the goal was, of course, to reduce the gap to the leaders. We didn't achieve that. However, we will continue to fight for all three championships at Hockenheim. We are still very much in the fight, especially in the rookie and team championships, and we still think we have a good chance. We need a bit of luck in the drivers' championship. However, we have already seen twice this year that you can quickly get back to the front of the field. We will do everything we can to be as well prepared as possible and to compete in the championship right to the end," adds Patrick Arkenau, Director Racing.

With an 16-point lead after the races at the Red Bull Ring, Manthey travels to the season finale at Hockenheim (316 points) as the leading team in the team standings. Ayhancan Güven is fifth in the drivers' championship (154 points), 17 points behind, while Thomas Preining is 25 points behind the lead (146 points, eighth place). Morris Schuring is in 17th place (40 points) and second in the rookie championship (seven points behind). The DTM season finale will take place from 3 to 5 October at the Hockenheimring and promises to be exciting: there has rarely been such a close battle, with nine drivers fighting for the top spot in the drivers' championship.

Quotes on the DTM race weekend at the Red Bull Ring:

Ayhancan Güven, Porsche 911 GT3 R #90: "We knew it would be a difficult weekend, especially with my success ballast on Saturday. In the end, it turned out to be even more challenging than expected. We didn't score any points on Saturday, and that was simply the best we could do. Qualifying went better on Sunday, and after a few battles, we finished seventh. At least we scored some good points, and we still have a chance to win the title at Hockenheim. We're still hopeful that we can stay in the title race until Sunday's race at Hockenheim, and then we'll see who comes out on top in the grand finale."

Thomas Preining, Porsche 911 GT3 R #91: "I'm a bit speechless after the weekend. On Saturday, we didn't stand a chance in qualifying, but we were able to maximise the race result and finish in a good sixth place with a great strategy, cool manoeuvres and mega pit stops. It actually felt a bit like a victory. On Sunday, I started from a good fifth place, but then I was hit hard and got a flat tyre. It could have been a lot of points, but in the end it was zero. That's extremely bitter in the fight for the championship. Fortunately, we now have three weeks to find our rhythm again so that we can travel to Hockenheim refreshed and give it our all one last time – hopefully something will come of it."

Morris Schuring, Porsche 911 GT3 R #92: "It was a difficult weekend, but we are still making good progress. Sunday actually went quite well. Starting last due to tyre damage, we had a really good race. A big thank you to the team for the really strong tyre changes. That allowed me to finish in fourteenth place. Unfortunately, I received a time penalty for contact with one of the Aston Martins. That was my fault and it was an unfortunate situation. Now I'm looking forward to Hockenheim, my first DTM season finale!"

DTM Race Calendar 2025:

25.04. – 27.04.2025 Motorsport Arena Oschersleben
23.05. – 25.05.2025 DEKRA Lausitzring
06.06. – 08.06.2025 Circuit Zandvoort / NL
04.07. – 08.07.2025 Norisring
08.08. – 10.08.2025 Nürburgring
22.08. – 24.08.2025 Sachsenring
12.09. – 14.09.2025 Red Bull Ring by VKB Bank / A
03.10. – 05.10.2025 Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg

Results DTM race 1 at the Red Bull Ring:

6th. Thomas Preining, Porsche 911 GT3 R #91
16th. Ayhancan Güven, Porsche 911 GT3 R #90
19th. Morris Schuring, Porsche 911 GT3 R #92

Results DTM race 2 at the Red Bull Ring:

7th. Ayhancan Güven, Porsche 911 GT3 R #90
18th. Morris Schuring, Porsche 911 GT3 R #92
21st. Thomas Preining, Porsche 911 GT3 R #91