Maxime Martin wins damage heavy Nürburgring race

BMW Team RMG driver Maxime Martin took his second career victory in the DTM at the Nürburgring in an contact strewn race, with a short red flag stoppage early on after a collision between the Audis of Jamie Green and Miguel Molina.

ART Mercedes driver Lucas Auer had started from pole position, but the Austrian was flanked on both sides by the BMW of Martin and the Mercedes of Pascal Wehrlein into the first corner. Wehrlein was ahead on the road on the outside, but Martin braked later down the inside, with Wehrlein turning in and making contact with Martin’s car, dropping down to fourth out of the first corner with the BMW of Bruno Spengler up to second and Audi’s Edoardo Mortara making a great start up to third.

Further down the order, Audi Sport Team Rosberg driver Jamie Green was spun in the melee at Turn 3 and was collected by the Abt Audi RS 5 of Miguel Molina, with both taking significant damage and were eliminated from the race.

The safety car was deployed but the officials chose to red flag the race while the debris was cleared, restarting the race behind the safety car with 30 minutes remaining on the clock.

Wehrlein had gone up to Martin’s car to voice his disappointment with the Belgian’s first corner move at the start, but Martin was unrepentant speaking to the TV interview during the short intermission.

When the race restarted, things were relatively processional until all the action kicked off again on lap 15.

Audi Sport Team Abt driver Edoardo Mortara made a lunge down the inside of Bruno Spengler’s BMW Team MTEK M4 into Turn 1 for second position, with Pascal Wehrlein following through up into third in his HWA Mercedes C-Coupé, with Spengler struggling with damage to the front of his car.

On the same lap, Audi Sport Team Phoenix driver Mike Rockenfeller tried to attack Maximilian Götz’s Mücke Motorsport Mercedes for fifth, but was forced out wide and began to fall down the order with damage to his RS 5.

Spengler eventually retired with damage on lap 18, and was quick to blame Mortara for the damage which put him out of the race.

“I am very disappointed and quite pissed off as it’s the second time in a row that my car has been broken by an Audi,” said Spengler. “It was Jamie Green in Oschersleben, and now it was done by Edo here. If my car hadn’t been there, he wouldn’t have made the corner.”

Martin went on to win the race by 2.5 seconds, with Mortara finishing second and Wehrlein third, while Gary Paffett put on a great recovery performance from 14th on the grid to finish fourth.

With Mortara finishing second and Mattias Ekström down in tenth, Mortara now moves up to second in the drivers’ standings, 27 points behind Wehrlein, with Ekström now 28 points adrift with three races remaining.

Qualifying for race two at the Nürburging takes place at 10:55 CET on Sunday with the race at 13:35 CET.