Mattias Ekström wins DTM finale at Hockenheim

Hockenheim. With an overwhelming victory for Audi, the 2014 DTM season came to an end. The brand from Ingolstadt had a clean sweep of the first three places in the season finale at Hockenheim and secured the manufacturers’ title in the most popular international touring car series. Victory in the race went to Mattias Ekström, who concludes the season as the runner-up in the drivers’ standings. “Winning the race in front of such a great crowd is fantastic.

After such an eventful year, bowing out of the season with a success is a good feeling. Over the year, we had many ups and downs. Today, once again, it was hard, but fair. That is simply a part of the DTM,” the Swede said after his second consecutive victory. Mike Rockenfeller and Jamie Green rounded out the podium after finishing second and third respectively. In total, 155,000 spectators attended the tenth race weekend of the year.

I am not only happy with this 1-2-3, but especially with victory for Mattias Ekström.

Dieter Gass

In the closing stages of the race, Paul Di Resta (Mercedes-Benz) and Marco Wittmann had a thrilling duel for fourth place. Eventually, Di Resta prevailed with his DTM Mercedes AMG C-Coupé and finished ahead of the German. “Initially, I had a difficult start and lost some positions as a result. I would have loved to catch Jamie Green for a podium finish as well, but fourth place is quite good, too. Thanks to my team members, who really have done an incredible job,” a happy Di Resta said.

Marco Wittmann had already secured himself the championship title in the Lausitzring round. After a successful season, the German had a rather patchy final race meeting. Fifth place for the BMW driver in the season finale at Hockenheim was the result of a race with plenty of progress for the BMW driver. After a disappointing qualifying, the German only started 13th into the race.

“I reckon I got the maximum out of it. My starting grid position for this race wasn’t the best. In the DTM, things are so close that it is difficult to make progress. As a result, I can be all the more happy with my fifth place,” the four times’ race winner looks back upon the season.

Today, Audi has shown a top team result, we didn’t have a chance against them.

Toto Wolff

Timo Scheider (Audi RS 5 DTM), Martin Tomczyk (BMW M4 DTM) und Robert Wickens (DTM Mercedes AMG C-Coupé) finished in sixth, seventh and eighth place respectively. Pole-sitter Miguel Molina crossed the finish line in ninth position. Immediately after the start, the Spaniard lost the lead to Mattias Ekström. In an attempt to claim back first place, Molina locked up under braking and dropped back significantly as a result.

Pascal Wehrlein had even more bad luck: the Mercedes-Benz driver was on course for a podium finish until his tyre change. As race control judged his release after the pit stop to be unsafe, the youngster was given a drive-through penalty, after which all his hopes of scoring a top result were blown.

Dieter Gass, head of DTM, Audi: “I am not only happy with this 1-2-3, but especially with victory for Mattias Ekström. There was so much talk about the young guns this year, and then this old hand comes up and scores two wins in a row. We are very happy with the manufacturers’ title. However, as we are well aware that the drivers’ title get some more public awareness, we definitely want that one back again next year, too.”

Toto Wolff, head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport: “Today, Audi has shown a top team result, we didn’t have a chance against them. We could have avoided the penalty for Pascal Wehrlein. This mistake happened to us in the heat of the moment. Even though we weren’t able to win a title this year, we still were able to give a hint of our potential in 2014. With our three victories, we don’t have to be ashamed.”

Jens Marquardt, BMW Motorsport Director: “In qualifying yesterday, not everything went perfectly. When starting from the midfield, you can’t expect to be all the way up front, in spite of good performances by our entire team in the race. Of course, I am really happy with the outcome of the season. We have won the drivers’ and teams’ titles. In the last three years, we have won six out of nine titles. That is not too bad for a DTM novice, which I think we still are.”

Race in detail

Start	Mortara has a bad start. Ekström takes the lead from Molina and Green. Molina runs wide after missing his braking point for the second corner.
Lap 1	Molina has dropped back to fifth. Green takes the lead coming out of the hairpin, Ekström is second from Wehrlein, Farfus, Molina, Scheider and Rockenfeller.
Lap 2	Tambay gets a drive-through for a jump start. Wehrlein overtakes Ekström for second, Farfus puts Eksträm under pressure as well and gets past. Molina and Ekström then side by side, Molina charges past, Scheider closes up as well and gets past Ekström in the Motodrom. Tambay comes into the pits at the end of the lap.
Lap 4	Green is leading from Wehrlein, Farfus, Molina, Scheider, Ekström, Spengler, Rockenfeller, Wickens and Juncadella. DRS is now enabled. Spengler takes sixth place from Ekström, who is on prime tyres.
Lap 5	Vietoris overtakes Wickens for tenth at the exit of the Sachs corner.
Lap 6	Vietoris off the track, runs over the kerbs coming out of the hairpin and drops back to twelfth.
Lap 8	Duel between Ekström and Juncadella for seventh, Juncadella prevails.
Lap 9	Warning for Edoardo Mortara because of leaving the track with an advantage.
Lap 11	Félix da Costa gets a warning because of leaving the track and gaining an advantage.
Lap 13	Scheider overtakes Molina for fourth.
Lap 14	Warning for Martin Tomczyk because of leaving the track with an advantage. Spengler into the pits for his mandatory tyre change.
Lap 15	Vietoris overtakes Rockenfeller and is now ninth.
Lap 16	Warnings for Nico Müller and Adrien Tambay because of leaving the track with an advantage.
Lap 17	Vietoris overtakes Ekström for seventh.
Lap 18	Molina into the pits, Jamie Green and Christian Vietoris get a warning for leaving the track with an advantage.
Lap 19	Farfus, Vietoris into the pits for a tyre change.
Lap 20	Green, Wehrlein, Scheider into the pits.
Lap 21	Scheider and Wehrlein side-by-side driving out of the pit lane. Wehrlein under investigation because of unsafe release. Ekström, Rockenfeller, Di Resta, Wittmann, Wickens, Félix da Costa, Tomczyk, Mortara, Glock, Müller, Petrov, Tambay into the pits.
Lap 22	Wehrlein gets a drive-through penalty for an unsafe release. Paffett, Hand, Martin into the pits.
Lap 23	Wehrlein comes in for his penalty at the end of the lap.
Lap 25	Ekström and Rockenfeller overtake Juncadella for sixth and seventh place.
Lap 26	Ekström overtakes Spengler for fifth coming out of the Sachs corner.
Lap 27	Rockenfeller overtakes Spengler for sixth at the exit of the first corner.
Lap 28	More and more smoke coming from Martin's car that is heavily damaged to the right rear. He gets a warning flag for technical issues. Wittmann overtakes Vietoris at the hairpin for tenth place. Martin comes in at the end of the lap - retires.
Lap 29	Ekström overtakes Molina for fourth. Rockenfeller overtakes Molina as well.
Lap 30	Green is leading from Scheider and Fartfus, all three with prime tyres. Ekström and Rockenfeller are fourth and fifth with option tyres, then Molina, Spengler and Juncadella on primes, Wittmann on options and Wehrlein on primes.
Lap 31	Mortara off the track after a duel and collision with Hand in the battle for 19th. Mortara into the pits.
Lap 32	Warning for Paffett because of leaving the track with an advantage. The incident between Mortara and Hand is under investigation.
Lap 33	Di Resta overtakes Spengler for eighth. Ekström and Rockenfeller overtake Scheider and are now in second and third place.
Lap 34	Wehrlein overtakes Juncadella and is now in the points again as he is tenth.
Lap 35	Wittmann overtakes Molina for sixth.
Lap 37	Juncadella and Spengler tangle in the battle for 13th. Juncadella spins off coming into the Motodrom and crashes into the tyre stacks. Safety car.
Lap 38	The incident between Spengler and Juncadella is under investigation from race control.
Lap 39	Green is leading from Ekström, Rockenfeller, Scheider, Wittmann, Di Resta, Farfus, Molina, Wehrlein, Tomczyk.
Lap 40	Safety car will come in at the end of this lap.
Lap 41	Di Resta and Wittmann battle for fifth. Ekström overtakes Green at the exit of the hairpin and takes the lead. Green's restart behind the safety car is under investigation by race control. Wehrlein comes in at the end of the lap.
Lap 42	Warning against Green. Rockenfeller gets past Green at the exit of the hairpin. Di Resta is right behind Green for third. Tambay and Petrov collide at the Motodrom in the battle for 18th.
Finish	Ekström wins from Rockenfeller, Green, Di Resta, Wittmann, Scheider, Tomczyk, Wickens, Molina and Felix Da Costa.