Hockenheim DTM: Di Resta takes championship lead with dominant victory
Former Formula 1 driver Paul di Resta scored a confident victory in Race 2 at Hockenheim, taking his first DTM win since his return in 2014.
Photo by: Alexander Trienitz
Starting from pole, di Resta had a stellar getaway and stretched his advantage to over two seconds only to have his lead cut down by an incident at Turn 2.
Debutant Esteban Ocon, picking up his second retirement of the weekend, was pushed into Bruno Spengler by Antonio Felix da Costa, with the Canadian spinning.
Trying to avoid the duo, Jamie Green was also caught by the Frenchman's car and had to likewise call it a day.
Unlike di Resta, Augusto Farfus had a sluggish getaway off the front row and fell behind both Gary Paffett and Maxime Martin.
Although he retook third from Martin, he couldn't keep up with the British Mercedes duo and was five seconds adrift by the time the pitstops commenced.
Despite a slow stop, di Resta managed to rejoin ahead of Paffett and soon found himself with a safe lead as the latter received a drive-through for an unsafe release, after a run-in with Robert Wickens.
Unrivalled for the rest of the race, di Resta scored his first victory since 2010 and took the championship lead.
Timo Glock finished second after passing both Farfus and Martin, the latter narrowly holding off a recovering Paffett.
The Briton put on an impressive drive after the penalty to salvage 10 points in fifth, followed by Wickens and Tom Blomqvist.
Sole Audi pointscorer Nico Muller and 2014 champion Marco Wittmann both took advantage of a late mistake from Martin Tomczyk, the trio completing the top 10.
Felix da Costa, Mattias Ekstrom and Timo Scheider all retired in the pits with damage to their cars, while Miguel Molina spun out at the pit entry and Daniel Juncadella got trapped in the gravel at the Sachs turn.
Race results:
Pos. | Driver | Car | Time/Gap |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Paul Di Resta | Mercedes | 1:01'42.654 |
2 | Timo Glock | BMW | 13.024 |
3 | Augusto Farfus | BMW | 13.905 |
4 | Maxime Martin | BMW | 14.493 |
5 | Gary Paffett | Mercedes | 15.055 |
6 | Robert Wickens | Mercedes | 19.377 |
7 | Tom Blomqvist | BMW | 21.690 |
8 | Nico Muller | Audi | 22.220 |
9 | Marco Wittmann | BMW | 23.790 |
10 | Martin Tomczyk | BMW | 24.454 |
11 | Mike Rockenfeller | Audi | 31.303 |
12 | Edoardo Mortara | Audi | 50.053 |
13 | Maximilian Gotz | Mercedes | 56.722 |
14 | Adrien Tambay | Audi | 1'02.408 |
15 | Christian Vietoris | Mercedes | 1'05.985 |
16 | Lucas Auer | Mercedes | 2 Laps |
17 | Dani Juncadella | Mercedes | 8 Laps |
Ret | Miguel Molina | Audi | |
Ret | Timo Scheider | Audi | |
Ret | Mattias Ekstrom | Audi | |
Ret | Antonio Felix da Costa | BMW | |
Ret | Bruno Spengler | BMW | |
Ret | Jamie Green | Audi | |
Ret | Esteban Ocon | Mercedes |
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