Robert Wickens takes maiden victory at wet/dry Nürburgring

Mercedes’ Robert Wickens took his maiden DTM career victory in a wet/dry race at the Nürburgring, ahead of pole-sitter Augusto Farfus and team-mate Christian Vietoris.

The HWA driver moved up to sixth as a result of the first corner incidents, and made his first pit-stop for wet tyres on lap-5 as the weather worsened after a dry start.

Wickens then showed strong pace throughout the rest of the 49-lap race, and began to work his way back towards the lead on the wet weather Hankook rubber, with a final stop for slicks on lap-41, in a mirror image of Mike Rockenfeller and Phoenix’s Audi’s last visit to the pits.

The Canadian also pulled off an exceptional manoeuvre on lap-21, when he swept his Mercedes around the outside of Tambay, Farfus and Molina to elevate himself from fifth to second.

Meanwhile, drivers’ championship leader, Mike Rockenfeller, was caught up in the first corner mess, and dropped to last. However, the Phoenix Audi driver pitted at the end of lap-two before the pit-lane window was open to take on wet tyres.

The early stop allowed Rockenfeller to advance through the field to take the lead and open a huge gap in the first part of the race. However, Rockenfeller’s early stop allowed Wickens to home in on his first DTM career victory, as the Audi driver was forced to make a third and final stop on lap-41 for pitting before the pit-lane window opened.

Wickens’ speed was such at one point, he managed to take four-seconds out of Rockenfeller on lap-36.

Despite finishing fifth, Rockenfeller extends his championship lead over Bruno Spengler to 39-points after the BMW driver endured another tough afternoon.

The reigning champion was running in a low points paying position until he made contact with Audi’s Filipe Albuquerque on lap-39. The collision pushed Spengler down to 14th where he finished.

As a result of his second non-points finish in a row, Spengler now lies fourth in the drivers’ standings, with Vietoris and Wickens elevated to second and third respectively.

Martin Tomczyk’s point-free 2013 came to an end, after he managed to take fifth place ahead of Adrien Tambay, and BMW stablemate Marco Wittmann.

Gary Paffett endured a woeful race, and finished 17th behind Andy Priaulx, and in front of Timo Glock and team-mate Roberto Merhi, who was last of the classified runners.

Paffett, as a result of his non-score, has dropped from third to sixth in the championship.

Dani Juncadella also failed to finish, despite feeling confident ahead of the race. The DTM rookie beached his Mercedes C-Coupe on lap 29, after straying slightly off the dry-line which emerged as the track started to dry out.

Miguel Molina took his first points of the year after finishing eighth, despite going on at the hairpin whilst under pressure from Vietoris.