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Marco Wittmann wins 2014 DTM season opener

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BMW’s Marco Wittmann took a dominant debut DTM victory in a thrilling DTM 2014 season opener at Hockenheim, ahead of Audi pairing Mattias Ekström and Adrien Tambay.

Adrien Tambay, who took pole in yesterday’s qualifying session, started well but was passed by Marco Wittmann on the second lap at the hairpin.

Ekström qualified fifth, but a canny strategy propelled him to within 12 seconds of race winner Wittmann come the end of the 42 laps. Ekström started on the standard Hankook tyre and like the other drivers who started on the harder rubber, found himself with a significant advantage after the pit-stop as a result of a lighter fuel-load and quicker rubber.

The 2013 DTM champion Mike Rockenfeller in the green and yellow Audi RS 5 DTM used a similar strategy to Ekström to finish fourth ahead of Timo Glock in the BMW M4 DTM.

The 2012 DTM title winner Bruno Spengler was sixth, after an exciting tussle between BMW stablemates Martin Tomczyk and Augusto Farfus who finished seventh and eighth respectively.

Double DTM champion Timo Scheider was ninth in the Phoenix Audi. Scheider ran as high as third at one stage, but he was spun by Antonio Felix da Costa in the latter stages of the race and then a battle with Farfus saw him lose sixth to Spengler.

Like Ekström, Audi’s Edoardo Mortara also looked on course for a good result after using a similar strategy. However, the Italian suffered a puncture and was forced to retire his Audi RS 5 DTM in the later stages.

Mercedes’ Robert Wickens appeared to go well early in the race after starting on the option rubber, and he deposed Tomczyk, Rockenfeller and Ekström within three laps. 

After the pitstop and bolting on the hard-tyre he plummeted down the field to finish 18th. His HWA team-mate Pascal Wehrlein was the best placed Mercedes in 11th.

Audi’s Jamie Green was an early casualty of the race, following contact with Augusto Farfus during the opening laps.