Bruno Spengler completes flawless drive to take first victory of the season at Norisring

BMW and Bruno Spengler had plenty to celebrate after this afternoon’s Race 1 at Norisring, with the Canadian dominating the race to take his and BMW’s first victory this season.

Heavy rain fell over the Norisring half an hour before the start of the race, with two formation laps scheduled due to the wet tarmac. Mercedes driver Maro Engel spun at the exit of Turn 7 during the first formation lap, managing to recover but having to take the start from the back of the grid.

Pole man Maxime Martin suffered from wheelspin at the start, with fellow BMW driver Spengler taking the lead from third ahead of Audi’s Mattias Ekström and BMW’s Tom Blomqvist.

Lucas Auer went deep at Turn 1, being hit by fellow Mercedes driver Robert Wickens, who was collected by the colliding BMWs of Timo Glock and Marco Wittmann, with the Canadian retiring from the race as Auer recovered to the pits, also to retire due to a broken suspension.

Martin started the recovery by overtaking Blomqvist for third at the end of lap one, and launching an attack on second place Ekström by lap seven. The Belgian managed to overtake on lap nine at Turn 1.

No further rain fell over the Norisring, with the racing line starting to dry up by lap 14 and drivers, still on wet tyres, searching for the wet line under braking.

Mike Rockenfeller went deep at Turn 1 on lap 17, losing ninth position to fellow Audi driver Jamie Green. It was the Briton the first to gamble, switching to slicks at the end of lap 19, and having to tiptoe his way around the track to bring the tyres up to temperature.

Audi’s René Rast crossed the white line at the pit exit and received a drive-through penalty. Martin and Ekström were the first from the leaders to switch to slicks on lap 23, with race leader Spengler following suit on the next lap.

By half of the race, all drivers had switched to slicks, with Martin launching an attack on Spengler to challenge for the lead as race control enabled the use of the DRS.

Mercedes’ Edoardo Mortara lost fourth position to Wittmann on lap 32 at Turn 1, being tagged and spun by Rockenfeller at the same point on the following lap, with the Italian managing to recover and falling to ninth place. The 2013 champion got a drive-through penalty for the incident.

Ekström started to close the gap on Martin with 20 minutes to go. Despite going deep at Turn 1 on lap 38, the Swede was faster than the Belgian, being within DRS distance again eight laps later. Martin defended his position, with Ekström growing in frustration. The Audi driver tried again on lap 56, being able to get ahead at Turn 1, but losing on the corner exit against the BMW. Ekström then ran out of DRS activations, not giving up but being unable to overtake Martin.

At the chequered flag, Spengler got his first victory for himself and BMW this season and 15th of his DTM career, followed by Martin and Ekström on the podium.

BMW continued their strong result, with Wittmann, Glock and Blomqvist next in the classification. Green was seventh, followed by Mortara. Audi’s Nico Müller and Mercedes’ Gary Paffett completed the top ten.