Hungaroring DTM: Ekstrom wins, Mortara last after Wittmann contact
Mattias Ekstrom won what will be his final DTM race of the season at Budapest as title contenders Edoardo Mortara and Marco Wittmann collided at the start.
Mattias Ekström, Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline, Audi A5 DTM
Alexander Trienitz
From pole, Mortara had a slow start - allowing points leader Wittmann, who started right behind him, to get alongside.
Running on the outside of the Italian, Wittmann was forced off track but managed to get ahead regardless.
However, Wittmann started to move to the inside before he was fully ahead of Mortara, and was turned by the Audi as a result.
He spun into Jamie Green's Audi, although this turned his car straight and Wittmann managed to continue in fourth. Mortara on the other hand had to pit with a puncture, and Green retired.
Both Wittmann and Mortara received a warning following the incident.
Ekstrom escaped the chaos to lead off the line with Adrien Tambay lining up in second, and the Swede slowly increased his gap to over two seconds before pitting on Lap 24, two laps after Tambay.
Despite a small error during his stop, Ekstrom emerged in the lead and cruised to the finish to win his final DTM race of 2016, as he will skip the season finale in order to focus on his World Rallycross campaign.
Mercedes driver Daniel Juncadella was up to third after the start and, similarly to Tambay, claimed his first podium finish of the season.
Wittmann fell behind Antonio Felix da Costa during the pitstops, but he went past his BMW stablemate to claim fourth and extend his championship lead to 26 points.
The duo was followed by other two BMWs in Tom Blomqvist and Timo Glock.
Maxime Martin was eighth until late in the race, but was forced to give up his position to Timo Scheider and narrowly held off Mike Rockenfeller.
Robert Wickens, Mercedes' sole title contender, lined up on the wrong grid position at the start, which initiated an extra formation lap and he was forced to start last.
The Canadian recovered to 12th but, not scoring any points, he fell out of mathematical contention for the title.
Mortara meanwhile failed to recover from his early pitstop to finish 21st.
Race results:
Pos | Driver | Car | Time/Gap |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Mattias Ekström | Audi | 59'09.402 |
2 | Adrien Tambay | Audi | 4.350 |
3 | Daniel Juncadella | Mercedes | 15.870 |
4 | Marco Wittmann | BMW | 23.295 |
5 | Antonio Felix da Costa | BMW | 24.209 |
6 | Tom Blomqvist | BMW | 26.067 |
7 | Timo Glock | BMW | 26.813 |
8 | Timo Scheider | Audi | 31.792 |
9 | Maxime Martin | BMW | 38.310 |
10 | Mike Rockenfeller | Audi | 38.675 |
11 | Martin Tomczyk | BMW | 39.966 |
12 | Robert Wickens | Mercedes | 40.327 |
13 | Felix Rosenqvist | Mercedes | 40.710 |
14 | Bruno Spengler | BMW | 41.317 |
15 | Paul di Resta | Mercedes | 41.777 |
16 | Christian Vietoris | Mercedes | 42.352 |
17 | Lucas Auer | Mercedes | 42.755 |
18 | Gary Paffett | Mercedes | 43.015 |
19 | Maximilian Götz | Mercedes | 45.388 |
20 | Miguel Molina | Audi | 1'07.034 |
21 | Edoardo Mortara | Audi | 3 laps |
Ret | Nico Müller | Audi | |
Ret | Augusto Farfus | BMW | |
Ret | Jamie Green | Audi |
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