Photo: Audi Sport

Mike Rockenfeller wins ahead of Mattias Ekström in Moscow

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Mike Rockenfeller took victory in a thrilling race at the Moscow Raceway on a day when his main championship rival, Bruno Spengler, failed to score.

The Phoenix Audi driver started from pole, and used an option-standard-option strategy to take his second victory of the season ahead of stablemate Mattias Ekström and Augusto Farfus, to extend his championship lead over Spengler by 25 points.

Ekström had lead for the majority of the race with a standard-option-standard after an early pitstop on lap 8, but due to Rockenfeller’s position as the championship leader, the Abt Sportstline driver admitted after the race that he decided to concede the position to Rockenfeller after the his final stop on lap 65.

Augusto Farfus, who started fourth, finished third as the best of the BMWs; a mere 0.882 seconds ahead of Adrien Tambay.

The Frenchman ran an impressive 57 laps on the option tyre and despite eventually losing out on the final podium spot to the Brazilian, took his best result of the season after having started 12th.

Gary Paffett ended the day fifth as the best of the Mercedes drivers, ahead of compatriot Jamie Green.

Joey Hand ended the day seventh, ahead of Dirk Werner, Timo Scheider and Christian Vietoris, who rounded out the top-10.

Rockenfeller’s main championship rival, Bruno Spengler, finished 19th and out of the points following contact with Miguel Molina on the third lap.

The pair collided after the Audi driver hit the BMW going into turn 1, and saw both drivers initially drop down the field.

However, whilst Spengler was able to continue to a pointless P19, Molina retired with suspension damage as a result of the contact, and continued his run of no-scoring events in 2013.

The Spaniard also made contact with his compatriot, Dani Juncadella, early on but the Mercedes driver was able to continue, despite losing part of the rear of his car.

Edoardo Mortara was another retirement, after he stopped on lap 33 due to excessive damage to the front of his RS 5, following contact with Junacadella and Tomczyk in the early stages of the 74-laps.

Vladimir Putin and his jet did not interrupt the proceedings of this race.