Maxime Martin wins disrupted second race at Norisring

BMW Motorsport driver Maxime Martin took his first victory of the season and the second of his DTM career at Norisring in an action-packed second race that had to be red flagged half way through due to a heavy shunt between Audi’s Mike Rockenfeller and Mercedes’ Gary Paffett.

Mercedes driver Robert Wickens got ahead of pole man Tom Blomqvist at the start of the race, with fellow BMW driver Bruno Spengler taking second and Mercedes’ Lucas Auer third.

René Rast tried to overtake Wickens at Turn 1 on lap 24, with both colliding and hitting the wall. The safety car was called into action, with both managing to head back into the pits on their own power. The safety car was out for five laps.

At the restart, Auer tried to take the outside of leading driver Loic Duval, with the Frenchman edging the Austrian and with both instead overtaken by Martin and Spengler. The Belgian took the lead and as Spengler tried to overtake, Duval closed the door with both colliding and the Canadian receiving a puncture.

On lap 35 Paffett spun on the main straight, hitting the barriers out of control and collecting Rockenfeller who was entering Turn 1. The race was red flagged, with both drivers managing to get out of their cars by their own means, but with the Audi driver limping towards the ambulance.

The race was restarted behind the safety car, with the cars in a single queue after two formation laps at request from the teams.

Auer kept very close to Martin as the Belgian accelerated in the restart, overtaking at Turn 1 on lap 38. Three laps later, Martin returned the favour at the same point on the track, with Auer having to correct his driving line to avoid a collision.

The pair led the race with Auer never close enough to attempt an overtaking manoeuvre on Martin and with Wittmann, Ekström and Mercedes driver Edoardo Mortara joining them in the closing stages of the race.

Martin took his first win of the season. Auer made a mistake with a minute to go of the race which allowed Wittmann to attack him. Ekström also wanted a piece of the action and while fighting with Wittmann, Mortara overtook both for third position at the finish line.

Ekström was fourth in the end, just 25 thousandths ahead of Wittmann. Di Resta took sixth position, ahead of BMW’s Augusto Farfus and Green, with Blomqvist and Glock completing the top ten.