ABT Sportsline's drivers suffered a double retirement for the second time
2025 DTM season is underway
The drivers had to resort to 15th and 16th places
ABT Sportsline suffered a weekend of poor luck that saw the team’s drivers Mirko Bortolotti and Nicki Thiim suffer a double retirement for the second time in the 2025 DTM season during Sunday’s second race at Sachsenring. Here is all you need to know:
The weekend had started positively for ABT Sportsline. Bortolotti set the fifth-fastest time in both free practice sessions on Friday, while Thiim also finished in the top 10 twice. The race simulations were also promising. This made the disappointment all the greater after the first qualifying session, in which the team failed to find the optimal working window for the tyres.
Heavy rain shortly before the start of Saturday’s race then created completely different conditions. Both drivers adapted quickly however and had their sights set on top 10 finishes when a technical defect on a wheel gun caused a significant loss of time during the pit stops and cemented 15th and 16th places for the duo.
On Sunday, Bortolotti achieved his best qualifying performance of the season so far with sixth place. But once again in the race the team suffered a major disappointment. Thiim suffered a puncture shortly after his pit stop, which immediately led to retirement.
Then, just two laps later, Bortolotti slid off the track at the fastest point of the Sachsenring at around 255kph as a result of a broken front-left brake disc. The Italian was lucky to escape the high-speed trip into the gravel trap uninjured and with the car only slightly damaged.
“Unfortunately, it was another weekend to forget for us. We were just incredibly unlucky again. The good news is that we made good progress from Saturday to Sunday and Mirko was able put in a strong qualifying performance. We will now analyse this at home and take the findings with us to the Red Bull Ring,” said ABT Motorsport Director Martin Tomczyk, summing up the weekend.
“On Friday, we were able to confirm the positive results from testing,” said Mirko Bortolotti. “Unfortunately, we didn’t get the tyres into the right working window in qualifying on Saturday. Things worked better on Sunday. Then, during the race the front-left brake disc exploded, which led to an early retirement. As a result, we were unable to convert a promising start into a positive result.”
“I really don’t know what we did to deserve this,” said Nicki Thiim. “I was doing well in both races and was in a promising position in each. Then on Saturday, we had bad luck with the defective wheel gun and on Sunday it was typical hard racing, where I was hit on the right rear wheel and the tyre was punctured. It’s just unbelievable how much bad luck we have this year. But I’m staying positive and looking forward to our home race at the Red Bull Ring.”
There's a short rest for the DTM team to regroup ahead of the next round at the Red Bull Ring in Austria on September 12–14.
