Stolz finished third in the second of the two races at the Dutch venue on Sunday, holding off two-time champion Wittmann by just 0.249s in a tense battle.
The AMG works driver was running behind Wittmann in the first stint but jumped his fellow German by pitting a lap later. Stolz's HRT crew serviced his Mercedes-AMG GT3 in 7.9s compared to the 9.3s it took for DTM newcomer Project 1 to change all four tyres on Wittmann’s M4 GT3.
The 27-year-old, who broke his DTM duck at the Nurburgring last season, then had to fend off the double series champion who kept the pressure up until the chequered flag.
Speaking after his first podium result since last year’s Red Bull Ring event, Stolz said he had to rely on Mercedes’ superior traction out of the corners to keep Wittmann at bay on Zandvoort’s straights.
“In the early stages when he had a lot of traction then it's always hard to fight the BMW because feeling-wise they are 100km/h quicker,” he said.
“But as soon as he lost a little bit of the tyre, I saw that I was better on traction and I could always place myself well.
“Then it was quite easy to defend because in the last laps I saw if I do no mistakes then he will stay behind.”
Wittmann also felt Stolz had an advantage exiting low-speed corners, which meant he was unable to pull off a move and score his first podium of the season.
Source: Autosport