A complicated debut for the Ferraris involved in the first round of the DTM at Portimão, which ended with a sixteenth place for Sébastien Loeb and the retirement of Felipe Fraga. The race was held under a blazing sun that quickly raised asphalt temperatures, reaching 41°C by the end of the sixty minutes of racing, in a race interrupted by the Safety Car which entered with just over 15 minutes still to run.
Collision. The biggest regrets would be for Fraga who made his obligatory pit stop just moments prior to the entrance of the race direction car, dropping the race lead and rejoining in seventh position. At the restart, the Brazilian at the wheel of the Red Bull AF Corse-run 488 GT3 Evo 2020, who had previously occupied fifth position, was hit by Rast's Audi and forced to retire.
Fine pace. Loeb, in contrast, starting from twenty-first position, managed to climb the order to seventh place taking advantage of the pit stops of his rivals, but whose late stop also meant he was unable to benefit from the Safety Car. Back in twenty-first position, the nine-time world rally champion produced a highly effective restart, moving all the way up to thirteenth position. While showing excellent pace, the increase in temperatures of the rear tyres hampered progress, eventually dropping him back down to sixteenth place.
Redemption. The Ferraris, which had been assigned 20kg of ballast before the race, will be looking to redeem themselves in Race 2 scheduled for 12.30 tomorrow, preceded by qualifying, set to take place at 09:05 local time.