Lausitz DTM: Auer controls Race 2 for maiden victory
Mercedes driver Lucas Auer converted pole position in Race 2 at Lausitzring into his maiden victory in the DTM.
Lucas Auer, Mercedes-AMG Team Mücke, Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM
Alexander Trienitz
Auer had at no point looked like losing the win, leading comfortably from the get-go and seeing out the race with ease after the mandatory stops.
While the Austrian's start from his career-first pole at the Nurburgring last year had not gone to plan, he completely nailed the getaway this time around, heading the field into Turn 1 as Mercedes stablemate Robert Wickens passed Timo Glock.
The Canadian remained within a second of his teammate early on, but soon dropped back, with Auer enjoying a lead of more than three seconds by the end of the first stint.
On lap 15, Wickens and Glock were the first to make use of the mandatory pit window for the frontrunners, and a bad stop for the latter proved costly - with Gary Paffett pitting a lap later to rejoin well ahead of Glock's BMW.
Auer himself would only wait until lap 17 to give up his lead for a mandatory stop - and, for a fair stretch, the race would instead be helmed by Mattias Ekstrom, who had benefitted from a late stop at Spielberg and opted for the same strategy here.
Having passed Audi teammate Jamie Green after the Brit's excursion to the grass, Ekstrom pitted on lap 25 - behind Green, who had stopped three laps earlier and was now chasing after Paffett for what was realistically third place.
Shortly thereafter, Green put paid to hopes of a Mercedes 1-2-3 by easing past Paffett at Turn 1, with Ekstrom completing the move in the very same spot the next lap, before eventually going on to overtake Green again as well.
By that point, Auer had already cycled back into the lead, enjoying a comfortable cushion of five seconds over Wickens, which would prove more than sufficient for the Austrian to coast to his first DTM victory.
Wickens himself, however, would fall prey to a DRS move from Ekstrom with two laps to go - but did manage to hold on to third place against Green.
Paffett took fifth, ahead of Marco Wittmann, who managed to defend against Christian Vietoris, the latter originally set to start on the front row before a five-place grid penalty for blocking.
A late-stop strategy allowed Nico Muller to finish eighth, with Bruno Spengler and Glock rounding out the points.
Four drivers of the 24 did not make it to the chequered flag, with Farfus punted off by Miguel Molina early on, Daniel Juncadella and Maximilian Gotz coming to a halt late in the race, bringing out a brief Slow Zone, and Paul di Resta calling it a day in the pits with five laps to go.
Race results
Pos. | Driver | Team | Time/Gap |
1 | Lucas Auer | Mercedes | 1:02:11.261 |
2 | Mattias Ekstrom | Audi | 3.763 |
3 | Robert Wickens | Mercedes | 6.386 |
4 | Jamie Green | Audi | 6.770 |
5 | Gary Paffett | Mercedes | 12.292 |
6 | Marco Wittmann | BMW | 16.839 |
7 | Christian Vietoris | Mercedes | 17.355 |
8 | Nico Muller | Audi | 18.099 |
9 | Bruno Spengler | BMW | 21.872 |
10 | Timo Glock | BMW | 24.865 |
11 | Tom Blomqvist | BMW | 34.033 |
12 | Edoardo Mortara | Audi | 34.173 |
13 | Maxime Martin | BMW | 36.394 |
14 | Antonio Felix da Costa | BMW | 36.827 |
15 | Esteban Ocon | Mercedes | 41.508 |
16 | Timo Scheider | Audi | 42.387 |
17 | Mike Rockenfeller | Audi | 45.110 |
18 | Martin Tomczyk | BMW | 51.198 |
19 | Miguel Molina | Audi | 1:04.337 |
20 | Adrien Tambay | Audi | 1:14.175 |
Ret | Paul di Resta | Mercedes | 5 Laps |
Ret | Dani Juncadella | Mercedes | |
Ret | Maximilian Gotz | Mercedes | |
Ret | Augusto Farfus | BMW |
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