Overview
- On Saturday, Lucas Auer crashed in qualifying at the Sachsenring when the right‑rear wheel hub on his Landgraf‑prepared Mercedes fractured and the wheel detached, forcing an immediate Mercedes‑AMG investigation into the Radnabe failure.
- Landgraf repaired Auer’s car in time for the race, he started from the pit lane and finished 11th to collect five points, but his deficit to championship leader Preining widened to 36 points with 84 still available this season.
- A separate first‑lap collision at the race start began when Marco Mapelli’s Abt‑Lamborghini struck Bastian Buus’s Porsche, hit team‑mate Luca Engstler and triggered a chain reaction that produced four retirements and several damaged cars.
- Race stewards judged Mapelli mainly at fault after a hearing and imposed a three‑place grid penalty for Sunday’s race, while Abt confirmed a broken rear‑left damper on Mapelli’s car and tie‑rod damage to Engstler’s car.
- DTM teams inspected and cleared several damaged cars to be repaired for Sunday, and Mercedes‑AMG has asked customer teams to review hub and bearing condition as investigators seek why a part within its service cycle failed.