Liam Lawson's second place and Alex Albon's fifth in Race-1 of round two of the DTM at the Lausitzring were brilliant results given a Balance of Performance that reduced the power of AF Corse's 488 GT3 Evo 2020.
On the podium. Starting from fifth on the grid, the New Zealander of Red Bull AF Corse lost a couple of positions in the first few laps. However, he took advantage of the Safety Car, which came on after Hawkey's accident in Turn 1, to turn the race around. Following another fast pit stop, Lawson came back out behind Sheldon van der Linde and Philip Ellis while leader Nico Müller extended his stint until the last lap. Twenty minutes from the end, Ellis passed van der Linde, who was suffering tyre trouble. Lawson did likewise with a throttle-down that left no room for the BMW driver to respond, earning him second place. At the end of the race, van der Linde suffered a five-second penalty for an infraction during the pit stop, which gifted fifth position to Alex Albon.
Battle. The AlphaTauri AF Corse driver put in an excellent performance, constantly battling with the Audi of Kevin van der Linde. Like his teammate, Albon struggled in the first few minutes of the race but went on the attack and climbed the leaderboard after his mandatory stop, one lap after Lawson's. The Thai gained another three positions on top of van der Linde's penalty for a fifth-place finish that gives grounds for optimism in Race-2 scheduled for Sunday at 1.30pm local time. This was despite the fact that the Balance of Performance robbed the Prancing Horse cars of 15Hp of power, leaving the 488 GT3 Evo 2020s without the necessary acceleration to attack their rivals on the long straights.