Emil Frey Racing celebrates third DTM season win with dominant start-to-finish victory at the Nürburgring

Fast Facts – The Press Bulletin
A weekend of elation and bitter disappointment for Emil Frey Racing at the sixth DTM round at the Nürburgring. Matteo Cairoli delivered an outstanding performance on Saturday, taking pole position, the fastest race lap, Driver of the Day honours and a dominant start-to-finish victory with nearly ten seconds in hand. On Sunday, another win was within reach until a pitstop problem cost precious seconds and dropped Matteo Cairoli to 13th place. Thierry Vermeulen was forced into the gravel by an unnecessary move from Christian Engelhart on Saturday and finished 12th in Sunday's race. In the Teams' Championship, Emil Frey Racing sits fourth with a 39-point deficit to the leading Winward Racing.

Press Release
The Nürburgring delivered Emil Frey Racing a weekend of contrasts at the sixth round of the 2026 DTM season. While Matteo Cairoli celebrated his third season win with a flawless performance on Saturday, a technical issue during Sunday's pitstop prevented what could have been another victory.

Race 1 – Saturday, 15th August 2026
In qualifying for the first race at the Nürburgring, Matteo Cairoli produced a stunning lap to claim pole position by just 0.036 seconds over Thomas Preining in the #91 Porsche. Teammate Thierry Vermeulen started from 14th place.

Matteo Cairoli held the lead in the #14 Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo from the very first corner and built his advantage over Thomas Preining to 3.25 seconds in the opening laps. Thierry Vermeulen meanwhile made steady progress through the field and had worked his way up to 11th place before the pitstop window opened.

When the pitstop window opened, Thierry Vermeulen was among the first to come in and was serviced in a solid 6.3 seconds. Matteo Cairoli pitted at the halfway point of the race and returned to the track after a 6.2-second stop. Thomas Preining also stopped in 6.2 seconds but had pitted before Matteo Cairoli. Despite this, the Italian retained the lead in the #14 Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo after the stop cycle was complete, even though Thomas Preining was initially faster on already warm tyres compared to Matteo Cairoli on still-cold rubber. Thierry Vermeulen set his personal best lap after his stop on fresh tyres and slotted into 13th place.

Matteo Cairoli withstood the pressure, extended his advantage back out to 2.2 seconds and also set the fastest lap of the race. By the time the last rival had pitted, Matteo Cairoli led with a comfortable margin of over seven seconds. In the closing stages, Thierry Vermeulen battled Bastian Buus in the #29 Porsche for 11th place but lost the position on the approach to the first corner and settled into 12th. What followed was simply unnecessary: Christian Engelhart drove the #19 Lamborghini into the unsuspecting Thierry Vermeulen in the #69 Ferrari at the very last chicane and sent the Dutchman into the gravel. An avoidable move on the final lap that cost Thierry Vermeulen valuable points and caused damage in the Teams' Championship standings.

Matteo Cairoli, meanwhile, crossed the line with nearly ten seconds in hand to claim a dominant start-to-finish victory and his third win of the season. He was rightly awarded Driver of the Day honours afterwards.

Race 2 – Sunday, 16th August 2026
After his dominant Saturday victory, Matteo Cairoli headed into the second race in the #14 Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo from third on the grid, carrying 20 kilograms of success ballast. Teammate Thierry Vermeulen started from 17th place.

Thierry Vermeulen made a strong start and immediately began moving forward. When Maro Engel, Kevin van der Linde and Luca Auer became involved in an accident shortly afterwards, the Dutchman benefitted and moved up to 11th place. The Safety Car was deployed and the race distance was reset to 55 minutes plus three laps. Matteo Cairoli held his third place throughout. At the restart, the Italian remained in third, while Thierry Vermeulen passed Mirko Bortolotti in the #63 Lamborghini on lap 4 to move up to 10th, before dropping back to 11th shortly afterwards.

Thierry Vermeulen was the first to pit and was serviced in 7.3 seconds. Before Matteo Cairoli's stop, the leading pack engaged in a close battle for second place. The Italian was one of the last to head for the pitlane and came in at the same time as the then-leading Jules Gounon in the #48 Mercedes. However, a problem on the rear left caused the stop to take 24.8 seconds, dropping Matteo Cairoli to 11th. Thierry Vermeulen was running 14th at that stage. Jules Gounon also received a penalty for speeding in the pitlane, meaning that a clean stop would have handed Matteo Cairoli the race lead.

On lap 17, Ben Dörr triggered a Safety Car period after his McLaren came to a halt in the first corner with a loose wheel. Racing resumed on lap 20. Matteo Cairoli fought back and overtook both the #10 and Ricardo Feller in the #90 Porsche on lap 25 to move up to ninth. Thierry Vermeulen again pitted first on lap 27, once more in 7.3 seconds. Matteo Cairoli followed on lap 28, but the spring issue caused further delays at the second stop as well.

Thierry Vermeulen finished 12th, Matteo Cairoli 13th. After the outstanding Saturday victory, a bitter end to the weekend, as a trouble-free pitstop would have put the Italian in a strong position to claim yet another win.

TEAM QUOTES – Emil Frey Racing

Lorenz Frey-Hilti, Team Principal
"Yesterday, Matteo Cairoli was outstanding and produced an incredible lap in qualifying. What followed was a smooth race and a sensational victory. Thierry Vermeulen struggled a little, particularly in the first sector. On Sunday, Matteo again did a great job in qualifying to start from third. After a strong opening stint, the rest of the race was very bitter. During the pitstop, a wheel nut came loose due to a spring that was not tensioned firmly enough, and that cost us a lot of time at the box. The same spring then caused problems again at Matteo's second stop. Very bitter, and a real shame that Thierry was unable to score more points. But the championship is not lost yet, even if we could definitely have reduced the gap today. We head to the next round at the Sachsenring with a 39-point deficit in the Teams' Championship, but there are still enough races and points available."

Jürg Flach, Technical Director
"As this weekend showed, small details can make all the difference between success and disappointment. After free practice, I was not yet convinced that we could fight for podiums or even a win. With Matteo Cairoli, we then had a perfect Saturday, with three points for pole position and then the full 25 for the outstanding victory. On Sunday, unfortunately, a wheel nut came out of the rim at the first pitstop while Matteo was running third, costing us around 18 seconds. For Thierry Vermeulen, things unfortunately did not go positively either, with the low point being the accident caused by Christian Engelhart."

DRIVER QUOTES – Emil Frey Racing

Matteo Cairoli (Italy)
"On one hand it's a very good feeling, but on the other it's a very frustrating end to the weekend, because today's race had so much potential. It's simply a real shame that the pitstop problem happened. Nobody is to blame for it, it's just unfortunate. But everything is still open and we will be back on the attack at the Sachsenring."

Thierry Vermeulen (Netherlands)
"A very difficult race and weekend for me. Even though I was happy with the car on both Saturday and Sunday, I was unable to match Matteo's pace. The heavy accident on Saturday left significant damage to the car, so a huge thank you to the whole team who worked through the night, because without that effort a start on Sunday would have been impossible. We now need to analyse why the pace was not there for me."

ABOUT EMIL FREY RACING 

Emil Frey Racing is a storied Swiss motorsport team based in Safenwil. Founded in the 1960s on the foundations of the Emil Frey Group, the team can look back on decades of motorsport experience, ranging from single-seater and rally racing to long-distance GT series. Today, Emil Frey Racing competes internationally, currently in both the DTM and the GT World Challenge with the Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo.

DOWNLOAD

High-resolution images can be downloaded at the following link:
https://emilfreyracing.com/presse/#bilder