DTM Esports: Isaac Price takes race win and points lead at Zandvoort

The 2025 DTM Esports Championship got underway at Zandvoort on Friday with race wins for Isaac Price and Philipp Drayss on RaceRoom.

The Brit would take the early points lead, though, as he pushed the German all the way to a photo finish in the opening race of the season, before backing that up with a race two victory. 

It’s a familiar format for the 2025 season, an opening race of 20 minutes, followed by a second half-hour affair including a pitstop. Both races have separate Qualifying sessions, and in the first of them, Philipp Drayss set the best time. 

Race 1

Drayss had a fairly mediocre getaway from the rolling start, and realising the importance of track position in the race, Leonard Krippner and Issac Price went for the lead. The pole-sitter covered the inside line well, though, and held the lead from Price on Lap 1. 

From there, it was difficult for Price to overtake. Firstly because a battle would’ve seen time loss, and a lurking Krippner get back into the fight, which had since been reduced to a pair, and secondly because of the circuit itself. 

Price had a couple of proper attempts towards the end, but it never really got anywhere, and despite a good run out of the final corner, he ended up on the wrong side of the eventual photo finish. Drayss would win his first-ever DTM Esports Championship race by just hundredths of a second after leading every lap, the best possible start to the season. 

Race 2

Drayss backed up the opening win with pole for the second race, outperforming even his wildest dreams for the opening round. However, this time, the start wasn’t quite so perfect. 

With Isaac Price qualifying second, he was always going to attempt a move at the first corner, but Drayss could do little to stop him. In fact, contact with Christian Michel meant Drayss fell to fourth on the opening lap, behind Turkka Hakkinen and Michel, who were third and fourth. 

Utilising the possibility of making a pitstop in race two almost immediately was Tim Jarschel, who came in with his teammate Lucas Muller from just outside the top five. The time they gained with an undercut forced Drayss and Hakkinen to cover by pitting slightly earlier than they otherwise might have, but only the latter was able to get out ahead, with the race one winner now sixth. 

They would eventually prove that overtaking is possible at Zandvoort as the fight for third heated up. On the final lap, Tim Jarschel looked for a late divebomb down the inside of Michel, resulting in contact and a Michel spin. Pending any post-race changes, this gave Jarschel the podium in race two, and dumped Michel down to ninth. 

Out front, it was Price cruised home to victory in the solo McLaren entry. He was the one applying pressure from second in the opener, but there was no one to fill that role for him in the second race.

Instead, he celebrated comfortably, winning by six seconds. He will be difficult to beat in the coming rounds, as he takes first blood and an early lead in the DTM Esports Championship. 

DTM Esports 2025 Race 1 results

1. Philipp Drayss
2. Isaac Price
3. Leonard Krippner
4. Gianmarco Fiduci
5. Lucas Muller
6. Tim Jarschel
7. Emre Cihan
8. Krisztian Juhasz
9. Turkka Hakkinen
10. Florian Hasse

DTM Esports 2025 Race 2 results

1. Isaac Price
2. Turkka Hakkinen
3. Tim Jarschel
4. Florian Hasse
5. Philipp Drayss
6. Lucas Muller
7. Emre Cihan
8. Julian Kunze
9. Christian Michel
10. Gianmarco Fiduci