Photo: Tamara Aller

Mattias Ekström wins, Audi is the Manufacturers’ champion!

Mattias Ekström (Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline) had an impressive performance today at the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters finale celebrated in Hockenheim, to win his second consecutive race of the season. Fellow Audi drivers Mike Rockenfeller and Jamie Green completed the podium, to give Audi Sport the victory in the Manufacturers’ championship.

Sunny summer weather welcomed the DTM family today in Hockenheim for the last race of the season. The main course in the menu was the final battle for the Manufacturers’ title, the only one yet to be decided. BMW was ahead on the points standings, but qualy had been “disappointing for them”, with only two cars in the top 10, against six from Audi.

Miguel Molina (Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline) started from pole, feeling confident he had a winning strategy. At the start, Ekström got ahead, with the Spaniard recovering his position a few corners later. But Molina would make a mistake under hard braking on the following lap, losing four positions.

Jamie Green overtook Ekström for the lead on the third lap, and started to pull away from the pack. Meanwhile, Pascal Wehrlein, who had made a great start, was up to second, with Ekström falling quickly on his slower standard tyres.

The Audi contingent was determined to dominate the race and win, and quickly started to dominate the points positions.

The round of compulsory pit stops was started by Bruno Spengler (BMW Team Schnitzer) on lap 14, when the Canadian came in for standard tyres. Molina did so on lap 18, but the key moment was when Mattias Ekström changed into options on lap 21.

One of the race’s hairy moments was when Pascal Wehrlein and Timo Scheider came together into the pits. The Audi mechanics were faster , but the Mercedes was sent out just as the RS 5 passed by, with both cars running side by side in the pitlane, with Wehrlein getting ahead at the end. The gooix Mercedes would receive a drive-through penalty for the manoeuvre, losing several positions.

The star of the second part of the race was Mattias Ekström, who led a charge from eighth place, recovering positions as he was about two seconds a lap faster than the men ahead of him. Only 10 laps later he was second and right behind Green.

Dani Juncadella and Bruno Spengler made contact and the Spaniard suffered a puncture, going out and into the barriers in the entrance to the stadium, and the Safety Car was called into action, staying on track for three laps as the track marshalls removed the Mercedes from the gravel trap.

The race was restarted with only two laps to go, and Ekström was quick to make his move on Jamie Green to take the lead. The Briton struggled to get his standard tyres into temperature, and lost a further position to Mike Rockenfeller. In a similar move, Paul Di Resta got ahead of Marco Wittmann, who was also recovering positions in the last few laps of the race.

The fireworks display started as Mattias Ekström crossed the line, followed by Rockenfeller and Green. Paul Di Resta was fourth, with Marco Wittmann right behind.

Timo Scheider was sixth, ahead of Robert Wickens, Miguel Molina and António Félix Da Costa completing the top 10.

On the last lap, Vitaly Petrov and Adrien Tambay collided to end up under de barriers, causing the safety cars to come out on the lap of honour, but didn’t stop some drivers from doing “donoughts” for the fans.

The result meant that Audi got enough points to secure the Manufacturers’ title, with a 30-point advantage over BMW.

Mattias Ekström: “There was nothing strange about starting on the standard tyres, because we knew we would have an advantage on the second part of the race if we stayed out of trouble during the first five laps. We have had a quick car all season, but we have only started to get it together in the last few races, being too late to do anything about the title. But it was a great race and tonight we will celebrate together!”

The 2014 Deutsche Tourenwagen Season is now finished, with Marco Wittmann, BMW Team RMG and Audi Sport being the respective Drivers’, Teams’ and Manufacturers’ champions.