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Race report

Norisring DTM: Mortara wins as Audi continues to struggle

Edoardo Mortara converted his pole position into a victory in the Saturday DTM race at Norisring, with Audi continuing to struggle and failing to score points.

Race winner Edoardo Mortara, Mercedes-AMG Team HWA, Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM

Race winner Edoardo Mortara, Mercedes-AMG Team HWA, Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM

Alexander Trienitz

Mortara, who beat Philipp Eng by 0.001s in qualifying, led off the line, despite the BMW driver having managed a slightly better launch.

With Eng pitting at the end of the opening lap, fellow BMW driver Marco Wittmann was in second as the only non-Mercedes driver in the top five - with Paul di Resta, Gary Paffett and Lucas Auer following the German.

The gap between Mortara and Wittmann remained around half a second when the latter pitted on Lap 7.

Mortara reacted by changing tyres a lap later, and he managed to stay ahead of Wittmann, as well as early-stoppers Eng and Daniel Juncadella.

Paffett passed Di Resta to take the lead shortly afterwards, only for him to pit as well.

Although Paffett rejoined ahead of both Mortara and Wittmann, the Italian made a move on his Mercedes teammate at Turn 1.

Paffett tried to keep Wittmann at bay, but the BMW driver also forced his way through, passing the Briton, still on cold tyres, on the outside of the Scholler chicane.

The provisional top three remained close, pulling away from Eng and Juncadella, who couldn't keep up on older rubber.

Wittmann never dropped more than one second behind Mortara, but it was the BMW driver who ended up losing position as Paffett stole second into Turn 1 with 20 minutes left on the clock.

It was then Paffett's turn to closely follow Mortara, the Briton putting increasing pressure as the final laps approached.

He once went side-by-side with Mortara at Turn 1, but didn't have a serious chance to make a move stick and eventually settled for second.

Wittmann temporarily lost ground but caught up with the top two again to take third, only 1.2s behind.

The trio of di Resta, Bruno Spengler and Auer passed Juncadella soon after their stops, but spent a big chunk of the race behind fourth-placed Eng.

Eventually, Di Resta passed the Austrian to take fourth, but Eng held on to fifth ahead of Spengler and Auer.

Juncadella ended up eighth followed by Joel Eriksson and Timo Glock.

With Paffett taking second, he snatched the championship lead from Glock and now has a six-point advantage.

For the second time in the seven 2018 races, Audi failed to score points as the brand's highest-placed driver, Jamie Green, was 11th.

He finished ahead of Robin Frijns, who waited to pit until the very last lap of the race.

Race 1 results

ClaDriverCarLapsGap
1 italy Edoardo Mortara  Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM 68  
2 united_kingdom Gary Paffett  Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM 68 0.681
3 germany Marco Wittmann  BMW M4 DTM 68 1.286
4 united_kingdom Paul di Resta  Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM 68 8.550
5 austria Philipp Eng  BMW M4 DTM 68 13.773
6 canada Bruno Spengler  BMW M4 DTM 68 14.169
7 austria Lucas Auer  Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM 68 14.874
8 spain Daniel Juncadella  Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM 68 15.205
9 sweden Joel Eriksson  BMW M4 DTM 68 15.813
10 germany Timo Glock  BMW M4 DTM 68 16.681
11 united_kingdom Jamie Green  Audi RS5 DTM 68 23.330
12 netherlands Robin Frijns  Audi RS5 DTM 68 24.505
13 germany Pascal Wehrlein  Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM 68 28.033
14 brazil Augusto Farfus  BMW M4 DTM 68 30.382
15 germany Mike Rockenfeller  Audi RS5 DTM 68 30.803
16 germany René Rast  Audi RS5 DTM 68 31.632
17 france Loic Duval  Audi RS5 DTM 68 42.539
18 switzerland Nico Müller  Audi RS5 DTM 67 1 lap
 

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