Pascal Wehrlein wins and leads the championship
Mercedes AMG got the final word today at the Moscow Raceway, host of the sixth round of the 2015 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters season. In a thrilling race, which saw two caution periods, Pascal Wehrlein had an strong charge for the win, and is now the points’ leader.
At the start, Marco Wittmann held the lead from pole position, with some advantage over Pascal Wehrlein and Jamie Green.
Audi’s Miguel Molina got tagged in the middle of the pack, spinning on the track. Christian Vietoris, who started at the back, couldn’t avoid the RS 5 DTM, crashing into the rear of the Audi. Both cars had to retire, with the Mercedes catching fire, and the safety car was called.
After six laps with the safety car on track, the race was restarted, with Wittmann keeping the lead, ahead of Wehrlein, Green, Glock, Ekström, Spengler, Juncadella, Blomqvist, Mortara and Müller.
Green racing wouldn’t last much longer, as on lap nine Timo Glock slid under braking, with Mattias Ekström closing into him. Ecky tried to overtake, but both drivers collided and ended up into the tyre barriers. They walked away from their cars, with a pending investigation and the safety car coming into action for the second time.
The race was relaunched with just 15 minutes left on the clock. Pascal Wehrlein started his charge for the lead, being constantly faster than Wittmann. The two young drivers had a great fight, with Wehrlein attacking and the reigning champion defending for four laps.
With just six minutes left, Wehrlein, who had the slipstream, as well as the use of the DRS, launched himself on the inside of the last corner, taking the lead from Wittmann. The BMW had to then defend himself from Jamie Green, who had been watching the battle closely from his Audi RS 5 DTM.
Mercedes Daniel Juncadella had also closed into Bruno Spengler, fourth, so the final laps saw Wittmann, Green, the Canadian and the Spaniard battling right until the chequered flag. Just before the last corner, Spengler overtook Green for third position. Juncadella was almost able to mirror the move, but couldn’t get past the Briton.
At the chequered flag, Pascal Wehrlein took his third DTM career win, and second this season. Marco Wittmann was second, followed by team-mate at BMW Bruno Spengler.
Jamie Green was the best Audi in fourth position, followed by Daniel Juncadella and Edoardo Mortara. Gary Paffett led a great charge on his Mercedes C63 DTM from 20th place on the grid up to seventh, scoring points again.
BMW’s Tom Blomqvist was eighth, with Audi’s Nico Müller and Mike Rockenfeller closing out the top 10.
Race control informed that the incidents involving Miguel Molina and Christian Vietoris at the start, and Mattias Ekström and Timo Glock later, would be investigated after the race.
Pascal Wehrlein now leads the standings with 119 points, eight more than Mattias Ekström. Edoardo Mortara is a close third with 106. Jamie Green is still fourth with 93.
DTM action returns tomorrow at 9:10 CEST (GMT + 2) for the 15-minute morning warm up.
