Lamborghini Breaks Through at the Norisring
- Jordan Pepper won Saturday’s DTM race at the Norisring from pole position, giving Lamborghini its first victory of the 2025 season and the brand’s 10th DTM win overall.
- Pepper, driving the #63 Huracán GT3 EVO2 for Grasser Racing Team, led every lap and finished just over three seconds clear of the nearest challenger.
- The 28-year-old South African arrived in Nuremberg fresh off a Spa 24 Hours victory one week earlier, and now sits joint second in the DTM drivers’ standings, seven points behind championship leader Lucas Auer.
One week after standing on the top step at Spa, Jordan Pepper lined up on pole at the Norisring and did exactly what Lamborghini needed: convert qualifying pace into a controlled, lights-to-flag victory. The result broke a winless stretch for the brand in the 2025 DTM season and vaulted Pepper into genuine title contention at the championship’s midway point. More quietly, it underlined a truth that the numbers have been telling for a decade: the Huracán GT3 EVO2 remains a formidable weapon, even as its successor prepares to take the stage.
The Norisring is a compact venue. At just 2.3 kilometers and four turns, it compresses the entire DTM field into a claustrophobic street circuit where track position matters more than outright speed. Pepper secured that advantage in qualifying, topping his group to claim pole for Saturday’s 55-minute race. From there, he controlled the gap, building a lead of over two seconds before his mandatory pit stop and emerging still in front despite what Lamborghini described as a slower-than-planned stop. In the closing laps, the #91 Porsche closed in but never got close enough to mount a serious challenge. Pepper crossed the line with a margin of just over three seconds.
192 Wins and Counting: The Huracán GT3 EVO2’s Remarkable Run
Lamborghini says this Norisring result was the 192nd victory for the Huracán GT3 EVO2 platform since its debut season in 2015. That number deserves a moment of appreciation: a decade of global competition across GT3 championships, customer racing programs, and endurance events, all built around the same V10 architecture.
The car’s record at the Norisring specifically underlines its consistency on street circuits. This was Lamborghini’s second consecutive win at Nuremberg; Nicki Thiim took his maiden DTM victory at the same venue 12 months ago, and multiple factory drivers collected podiums during the 2024 edition, including Franck Perera, Luca Engstler, and Mirko Bortolotti. Since entering the DTM in 2021, Lamborghini now counts 32 podium finishes in the championship.
Ten years is an eternity in GT3 racing, where rival manufacturers cycle through platforms far more frequently. The fact that the Huracán GT3 EVO2 remains competitive enough to win from pole at a major DTM round in 2025 speaks to how well the original engineering scaled through successive evolutions. Car and Driver recently tested the Super Trofeo EVO2 variant at its Lightning Lap event, reinforcing that the platform still performs at a high level even as its successor waits in the wings. Every fresh result like Pepper’s only raises the bar for what comes next.
Pepper’s Championship Push: Spa to Norisring in Seven Days
Jordan Pepper won the Spa 24 Hours alongside factory teammates Mirko Bortolotti and Luca Engstler, then traveled to Nuremberg and delivered a maiden DTM victory within seven days. That kind of momentum across two very different racing formats, a 24-hour endurance grind versus a 55-minute sprint on a street circuit, is unusual for any driver, and it places Pepper squarely in the conversation for the DTM title.
Lamborghini says Pepper now sits joint second in the drivers’ standings, seven points behind championship leader Lucas Auer. With roughly half the season remaining, he is well within striking distance. Sunday’s second race at the Norisring was less productive. Carrying 20kg of success ballast from Saturday’s win, Pepper started ninth and finished in the same position after a multi-car incident at the exit of turn one forced an early red flag and eliminated both Thiim and Bortolotti. Consolidating ninth with extra weight on board was damage limitation rather than a setback.
Pepper’s back-to-back results also reinforce the depth of Lamborghini’s factory driver roster. Bortolotti won the 2024 DTM championship. Thiim won at this same circuit last year. Pepper is now the latest factory driver to convert opportunity into a headline result, and the pattern suggests Lamborghini’s investment in driver development is paying off across multiple racing series simultaneously. That depth matters because the Huracán GT3 EVO2’s twilight season demands drivers who can extract every last tenth from a platform they know intimately.
The Temerario GT3 Looms: Timing and Transition
Lamborghini confirmed that the Huracán’s successor, the Temerario GT3, was scheduled for its official unveiling at the Goodwood Festival of Speed on Friday, July 11, just five days after Pepper’s Norisring victory. The choreography was hard to miss: the outgoing car delivering a statement result right before the incoming car took the stage.
The transition matters for teams and buyers invested in Lamborghini’s customer racing programs. Road & Track reported that the Temerario GT3 will be the first race car entirely designed and developed at Lamborghini’s Sant’Agata Bolognese facility, and Car and Driver noted it will use a modified version of the road car’s twin-turbocharged V8. For customer teams like Grasser Racing, that means adapting to a fundamentally different powertrain: new turbo characteristics, different weight distribution, and an entirely new set of setup parameters compared to the naturally aspirated V10 they have spent a decade learning.
The Huracán GT3 EVO2 retires with 192 wins and a DTM championship to its name. The Temerario GT3 will need to match that competitive record against rival GT3 platforms from Porsche, Ferrari, BMW, and Mercedes-AMG, all of which are fielding current-generation machinery. Pepper’s Norisring win is the latest proof that the old car still delivers, but it also sharpens the question of whether its successor can sustain the same standard.
What This Means for the Second Half of the Season
The DTM season resumes at the Nürburgring on August 9 and 10. Pepper will carry the confidence of two major victories in consecutive weekends, but also the reality of a seven-point deficit to Lucas Auer. The success ballast system, which added 20kg to his car for Sunday’s race at the Norisring, will continue to compress the field and make sustained championship runs difficult for any single driver.
For Lamborghini, the bigger picture extends beyond the points table. The Huracán GT3 EVO2 is racing in what could be its final full DTM season, and every win adds to a legacy that the Temerario GT3 will eventually need to carry forward. Buyers considering Lamborghini’s customer racing programs should watch the Goodwood unveiling closely: the specifications, delivery timeline, and initial testing feedback for the Temerario GT3 will determine whether teams commit early or run the proven Huracán platform for as long as regulations allow.
Pepper’s Norisring weekend offered the best possible send-off for the current car: pole, a controlled race, and a victory margin comfortable enough to absorb a pit-stop hiccup. The DTM title fight is genuinely open, and Lamborghini’s #63 will be one of the cars to watch when the grid reassembles at the Nürburgring. If the Huracán GT3 EVO2 can keep winning in its twilight, the platform’s decade-long story will only grow harder for its successor to match.
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