Marco Wittmann wins Race 1 in Spielberg
Marco Wittmann achieved a lights-to-flag victory today at the Red Bull Ring, host of the second round of the 2016 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters season. The German driver from BMW Team RMG drove a quiet race to take his sixth win in the series.
Sunny skies and dry conditions welcomed the DTM field for the twilight race. António Félix Da Costa was moved to the tenth spot on the grid, thus taking his penalty for the Race 2 collision back in Hockenheim.
At the green lights, the BMWs of Marco Wittmann and Tom Blomqvist got off well, with the German making his pole position count, whilst the Briton defended from Edoardo Mortara’s Audi. Timo Glock took fourth position.
At the first corner Da Costa, his team-mate Maxime Martin and Audi’s Mattias Ekström collided with each other. The incident was reported to the stewards, who ruled it as a racing incident, requiring no further action.
Timo Glock attacked Edoardo Mortara, with the Italian managing to defend himself from the German from Team RMG.
One of the few incidents in the race came on the sixth lap, when Mercedes AMG’s drivers Daniel Juncadella and Christian Vietoris collided when the Spaniard tried to overtake the German. The action resulted in both drivers having to retire from the race, with Juncadella suffering from a broken front left suspension, which obliged him to leave his C63 DTM at one of the run off areas, causing a yellow flag in the third sector.
Audi’s Adrien Tambay run off wide on lap eight, causing both Maxime Martin and António Félix Da Costa to come right up to his rear end. The Belgian managed to overtake in time, but the Portuguese did so just as they entered the yellow flag area, thus receiving a ‘drive through’ penalty, which he completed on lap nine, falling to the back of the pack.
The attempts to gain positions were translated in heavy DRS usage, limited to 42 activations in this race. By lap 16, just over half of the race, Edoardo Mortara had run out of activations and came under threat from Timo Glock. Thankfully for the Italian, a better brake balance and the superior straight line speed of the RS 5 DTM allowed him to prevail.
BMW’s Bruno Spengler also was investigated for an alleged overtake under yellow flag conditions, with the Canadians being referred to the stewards at the end of the race.
On lap 21 Mercedes AMG’s Maximilian Götz crossed the track in front of Miguel Molina’s Audi, trying to defend himself from the Spaniard’s attacks. They both touched, with some flaps flying out. The incident was also investigated, resulting in no further action.
The remaining laps were very tidy, with Glock falling behind Mortara and starting to suffer the attacks from fellow BMW driver Martin Tomczyk. Audi driver Nico Müller was able to recover places, overtaking Bruno Spengler and Robert Wickens, and launching a final attack on Augusto Farfus.
At the chequered flag, Marco Wittmann took his sixth win in the series, and the first this season for BMW Motorsport, with Tom Blomqvist and Edoardo Mortara accompanying him on the podium.
BMW drivers Timo Glock, Martin Tomczyk and Maxime Martin came next in the classification.
Paul Di Resta was, in seventh, the only Mercedes AMG driver in the points. He was followed by Audi’s Adrien Tambay and BMW’s Augusto Farfus. Nico Müller completed the top ten.
The DTM is back on track tomorrow morning at 10:20 CEST for the third free practice session.
