Daniel Juncadella takes his career-first DTM victory at Brands Hatch

Daniel Juncadella has taken his first win in the DTM in his fifth season in the championship, assuming the lead in his Mercedes-AMG after the pit stop sequence and holding off the field to win the race eight seconds clear from BMW’s Augusto Farfus.

Juncadella started the race from pole position, but had a sluggish start and was passed by Mercedes-AMG team-mate Lucas Auer as well as the Rosberg Audi RS 5 of René Rast into Paddock Hill bend, but he was soon back up to second when Rast headed into the pits at the end of the first lap to take his compulsory pit stop.

Loїc Duval soon became first retirement of the race on lap two, after the Frenchman went off at Paddock Hill bend in his Audi on cold tyres after also stopping at the end of the opening lap, which triggered a slow zone deployment.

BMW drivers Augusto Farfus and Philipp Eng, now in third and fourth, stopped as soon as the slow zone was retracted, with both drivers rejoining ahead of Rast, but Rast was able to get back ahead of Eng at Surtees as the Austrian struggled to warm up his tyres, but Farfus was safely able to hold his position.

Championship leader Gary Paffett pitted a lap later and was briefly ahead of Farfus, but the Briton was swallowed up by the chasing trio and couldn’t defend on cold tyres and fell behind them.

Juncadella, now in second, left it to lap seven before pitting, and rejoined ahead of Farfus’ BMW, while race leader Auer pitted a lap later but was passed straight away by both Juncadella and Farfus, with the Spaniard assuming the virtual race lead.

The actual race lead was now held by Edoardo Mortara, who hadn’t yet stopped in his HWA Mercedes-AMG, with Pascal Wehrlein behind him. Both stayed out late, with Mortara pitting on lap 11 and Wehrlein on lap 15, rejoining in eighth and seventh respectively.

Juncadella then started to slowly build a lead over Farfus’ BMW, with Auer in third, while the next battle was over tenth, with Audi Sport Rosberg’s Jamie Green handing the position to the BMW of Timo Glock after an error at Paddock Hill bend on lap 17, but Robin Frijns in the Abt Audi would soon pass Green and close in on Glock, snatching tenth from the German on lap seven as he battled with him side-by-side through Paddock Hill and Druids, completing the move at Graham Hill bend.

Glock then lost two more spots in a three-wide tussle at Hawthorns, with Mike Rockenfeller’s Audi moving up to 11th, with Green now up to 12th and Glock now demoted to 13th.

The race settled down until the final five minutes, when Paffett closed up on Eng’s BMW and joined him to battle for fifth, but Eng was able to hold him off to keep the position, while Rockenfeller snatched tenth away from Frijns on the final lap as Frijns’ tyres faded.

Juncadella went on to win by 7.9 seconds from Farfus, with Auer third.

Paffett has extended his lead in the championship to 35 points over Paul di Resta, with di Resta finishing down in 16th and well outside of the points, while Aure closes up and is just 15 points behind di Resta heading into tomorrow’s race.