Mirko Bortolotti is stripped of his victory in Sunday’s race at Oschersleben—the Grasser team plans to appeal—is a legal stalemate now looming?
A rude awakening for the Grasser team nearly three weeks after their big triumph: Lamborghini factory driver Mirko Bortolotti loses his victory in Sunday’s DTM race at Oschersleben due to a technical infraction!
During the technical post-race inspection, deviations from DTM homologation were discovered in the wheel bearing. As a result, the 63 Lamborghini Temerario GT3 was removed from the results, causing Bortolotti to lose his first DTM victory since the Red Bull Ring in 2024—which came even before he won the title that same year.
The team has announced that it will file an appeal. As a result of the disqualification, DTM leader Maro Engel is now the race winner—that would only change if Grasser’s appeal is successful. However, the result remains provisional until the case has been heard by the Sports Court of the German Motor Sport Federation (DMSB) in Frankfurt.
It is currently unclear when that will happen. In the worst-case scenario, the 2026 DTM season would not be decided until after the finale at the Hockenheimring on October 11.
Why the Grasser team believes it is in the right
Team principal Gottfried Grasser said in an initial statement to Motorsport-Total.com: “Article 5 of the DTM, which led to the disqualification, states that parts may be compared to the manufacturer’s original parts. That is the general wording regarding parts for technical inspection.”
“However, we believe that this does not apply to wheel bearings. I refer to Article 2, which states that the bulletins currently available for download in the Download Center are valid. There, Clarification 04 explicitly states that wheel bearings are exempt.”
“Since this Clarification has never been revoked or removed from the Download Center, we believe that wheel bearings are exempt in the DTM. And for that reason, we filed an appeal. The appeals court will have to decide what is correct.”
How the disqualification affects the DTM title race
In the DTM, certain aspects of the FIA homologation are clarified through an additional homologation. In some cases, there are also deviations. The DTM homologation takes precedence over the FIA homologation.
Following a disappointing start to the season, the Lamborghini Temerario GT3 was granted exemptions concerning, among other things, the mounting of the rear wing.
The case has immediate implications for the championship standings, which are now also provisional. Should the disqualification stand, championship leader Maro Engel would receive five additional points, while his closest rivals, Nicki Thiim and Lucas Auer, would each receive only one more. This would amount to a net gain of four points for Engel.
Thomas Preining, currently fourth in the overall standings, would gain four additional points. This would allow him to make up three points on Thiim and Auer, but lose another point to Engel.
Engel and Bortolotti to Carry Maximum Success Weight for Victory
This also has implications for the performance weights in Saturday’s race: The new race winner, Engel, must compete with 20 kilograms; the new runner-up, Preining, with 10; and the new third-place finisher, Wittmann, with 5 kilograms. Bortolotti, however, also receives 20 kilograms in performance weight for the victory.
This is stipulated in the regulations, because otherwise a team could file an appeal, avoid carrying the success weight in the race, and then withdraw that appeal three days later—thereby gaining an advantage.
The Technical Commissioners’ statement in full
“The investigation revealed that the wheel bearing of car No. 63 does not comply with the 2026 DTM homologation for the Lamborghini Temerario DTM GT3: Homologation – DTM-GT3-059 / 6.3 Wheel bearing – front. This constitutes a violation of Article 5.1 of the 2026 DTM Sporting Regulations.” (Original document in English)
“The race commissioners heard the competitor and the Technical Coordinator and reviewed the evidence presented. The competitor stated that a modification to the wheel bearings had been permitted at previous and other events and that they had forgotten to replace them for the DTM event in question.”
“The competitor further argued that a clarification regarding the 2024 DTM Sporting Regulations was still available for download in the Download Center under the ‘2024’ folder and that, in his opinion, it remained valid.”
“Nevertheless, the race commissioners ruled that the modification was not permitted and therefore decided to penalize this violation with a disqualification from Race 2 of the DTM event in Oschersleben.”
