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Marco Wittmann loses Zandvoort victory due to a technical infringement

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Marco Wittmann has lost his first victory of the season, after there was not enough fuel left in his BMW M4 DTM post-race for the mandatory technical checks, which promotes Mike Rockenfeller to the top of the podium, the Audi driver’s first win of 2017.

The reigning champion had started from second on the grid, and took the lead at the start. The two-time champion emerged back in the lead after the mandatory pit stop sequence, and fought off a late charge by Rockenfeller, scoring his first victory of the year and leaping to second in the drivers’ championship.

However, during the parc fermé technical checks, the stewards were unable to take the required 1kg of fuel for testing, as indicated in article 29.A.1 of the DTM’s sporting regulations, with the officials therefore forced to exclude Wittmann from the race results.

Rockenfeller now leads an all-Audi top four in the race’s classification, with Loic Duval promoted to second ahead of Mattias Ekström, who now has a 14 point lead over René Rast in the championship, with Rockenfeller now up to third, while Wittmann plunges all the way down to eighth.