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

Some teams have questioned how Bortolotti was so quick at the Red Bull Ring in a heavy-ballasted Lamborghini

Mirko Bortolotti's pace in the SSR Lamborghini caught his DTM rivals by surprise at Spielberg. 

Despite being hit with 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 leg of the meeting.

That allowed him to snatch the championship lead from Abt Audi rival Kelvin van der Linde, putting him on the front foot for this month’s title decider at Hockenheim.

While Bortolotti is widely recognised as one of the fastest drivers in Lamborghini’s factory roster, many felt that his Huracan GT3 EVO2 was barely hindered by the enormous ballast it was carrying - and the Italian, in fact, had more time in reserve.

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

The Schubert BMW driver, who eventually won the race after jumping Bortolotti in the pits, said: "I caught up with Mirko, but as soon as he saw that 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 off. That's something we need to look into.

"It was very noticeable that Mirko was suddenly riding green [personal best] sectors even though he was 65 kilos heavier than me the day before."

Bortolotti was taking part in Sunday’s race with 45kg of extra weight on his car compared to when he won on Saturday, a combination of mid-weekend BoP changes and the additional success ballast as a result of his victory.

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 in the opening stint to put himself directly behind Bortolotti, the latter was able to immediately increase his pace to set times in the 1m29.7s bracket.

Even Rast’s team boss Torsten Schubert was surprised by Bortolotti’s pace because the Lamborghini was carrying a total of 120kg 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 120kg in it, i.e. another 15 kilos after qualifying and the 20 kilos extra weight [under success ballast], then those who organise the event should think about whether this might really be a case of overperformance,” he said.

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

The hour-long contest began on a damp track, so drivers initially stayed away from kerbs that were still wet. But a dry line quickly appeared, and the entire field switched to slick tyres during their mandatory pitstops.

Bortolotti was closely followed by Mercedes driver Maro Engel in the second stint, but was able to fend him off to score his first victory of the year by 1.3s.

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

However, interestingly, Engel disputes the comments of his DTM rival.

“At the beginning of the stint we all deviated from the ideal line, and at some point, I decided to take the ideal line everywhere except for 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 kerb in Turn 1, like you do in the dry, 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 on Sunday with his package [despite the added weight].”

He added: “If you look at the weekend and the changes over the weekend, and see what performance was still there, then you have to come to the conclusion that they simply 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 finale. With van der Linde finishing one position behind him in fifth, Bortolotti still managed to increase his points lead over the South African.

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

However, that theory may be wide of the mark, as Bortolotti braked too late on his out-lap and ran wide at Turn 2, showing he was indeed pushing the car close to its limit. 

Nevertheless, the BoP categorisation of the Huracan will remain a talking point as the DTM returns to Germany for the all-important finale on 19-20 October.