Liam Lawson capped off his second DTM weekend with his third podium of the year, finishing P2 at the Lausitzring.
The series rookie has now visited the rostrum in three of the first four races this year and sits second in the driver’s championship.
After claiming second in yesterday’s weekend opener, Lawson made another strong impression by qualifying on the outside of the front row for race two.
Then, when the race began, the Kiwi shot into the race lead with a move on polesitter Philip Ellis at turn three.
Lawson controlled proceedings from there until the mandatory pitstops rolled around.
“At the start when I got the lead I thought we could possibly win,” Lawson said.
“I knew that the start was the only opportunity to get to the lead. I knew both Philip and I had all that extra weight, so I tried.”
Kelvin van der Linde had passed Ellis and was the first driver to blink for a fresh set of rubber.
Lawson followed suit two laps later, but a stall on his getaway from his pit box meant van der Linde undercut him.
Maximilian Gotz had also stopped earlier than Lawson and capitalised on his warmer tyres to get ahead of the Red Bull driver.
Then, with a little over ten minutes remaining, van der Linde’s Audi grounded to a halt.
He solved the issue with a full-car reset but lost places to Gotz and Lawson in the process.
Gotz seized the race lead and duly held on to claim his first win of 2021.
Van der Linde was able to reel in Lawson once more for the battle over second, yet the New Zealander was stout in his defence and hung on to take P2.
“Lucky Kelvin had the issue and from then on for about 20 laps I was just defending for my life. Happy with the points,” Lawson said.
In the driver’s standings, Lawson is four points behind leader Sheldon van der Linde.
The next round of the championship is in a fortnight at the Zolder circuit in Belgium.
Well done Liam