Miguel Molina wins, but Edoardo Mortara scythes to third to keep title alive
Audi Sport driver Miguel Molina had a lights-to-flag victory in the first race at Hockenheim, staying ahead of championship leader Marco Wittmann who crucially was ahead of title rival Edoardo Mortara who finished third.
At the start, Molina dived on the inside of António Félix Da Costa to take the lead in Turn 1. At Turn 6, Wittmann overtook fellow BMW driver Tom Blomqvist to take third position. Mortara had managed to gain a position, but was demoted back to eighth by Timo Glock at the Sachs Kurve.
The positions remained stable, with Edoardo Mortara trying to take advantage of the DRS to overtake Glock, but to no avail.
On lap seven, Marco Wittmann overtook fellow BMW driver António Félix Da Costa for second place, thus gaining enough advantage in the then projected championship standings to win the title.
Mercedes AMG’s Felix Rosenqvist had to retire with steering problems at the end of lap 9. The positions remained stable, with Wittmann keeping a three-second distance to Miguel Molina.
Mortara kept trying to go past Timo Glock, but the German driver from BMW closed all doors. René Rast, who was bodyguarding the Italian, also came under pressure from Maxime Martin.
On lap 15, Edoardo Mortara finally went through Timo Glock to take seventh place and, a lap later, did the same to Augusto Farfus, with the Italian now having to recover on fellow Team Abt Sportsline driver Mike Rockenfeller. The 2013 champion closed in on Blomqvist, pulling Mortara through. The Italian overtook the Briton on lap 18 to take fourth place. A lap later, Rockenfeller also went through, demoting the Team RBM driver to fifth. Rast would soon follow suit.
Mortara then started to close into Da Costa, coming under the Portuguese’s rear wing with just three minutes left on the clock. The Italian overtook the BMW on the following lap at Turn 6. The Team Abt Sportsline driver couldn’t come within DRS distance of Wittmann, managing to close the gap but not being able to overtake.
At the chequered flag, Molina took his second victory of the year and third of his DTM career, followed by title rivals Wittmann and Mortara.
Da Costa was fourth, followed by Mike Rockenfeller, Rast, who scored his first points in the DTM, BMW’s Timo Glock, Jamie Green, who managed to recover from 14th on the grid, Blomqvist and Mercedes AMG’s Paul Di Resta taking the final point.
Wittmann leads the standings with 194 points, 17 ahead of Mortara, with the championship battle going to the final race of the season.
The DTM will be back on track tomorrow morning at 10:55 CET for the third and final free practice.
