Nurburgring DTM: Mortara passes Auer to claim Race 2 win
Edoardo Mortara took his third DTM victory of the season in Race 2 at the Nurburgring and took second place in the standings.
Photo by: Alexander Trienitz
Running fourth after the start, Mortara passed two people with an advantageous pit strategy and then overtook pole-sitter Lucas Auer to win.
While Auer had a good getaway to lead after the start, he was never able to pull away from Marco Wittmann and a several other cars kept up with the leading duo.
The gap remained under a second between the duo, who were among the first drivers to go into the pits, doing that on the same lap.
Auer rejoined as the provisional leader but Wittmann found himself behind Bruno Spengler, who was running third earlier and stopped a lap before.
Slowly losing ground, Spengler gave up his spot to Wittmann as they soon caught up with drivers yet to pit.
Among those pitting late - mainly Audi drivers - Edoardo Mortara was confidently at the front and the Italian managed to rejoin ahead of Wittmann's BMW after finally stopping.
Running on significantly fresher tyres, Mortara soon started to challenge Auer.
After holding off the initial attack, Auer had to give up the lead as Mortara went around the outside of him with ease at Turn 1.
The Italian had superior pace, leading by 1.7s after a single lap and winning by over three seconds.
The BMW duo of Wittmann and Spengler came under pressure from Mattias Ekstrom, who was also running on new tyres.
The Swede first passed Spengler by hitting him at Turn 1 but he gave up the spot and made a fair move a lap later.
He rapidly closed in on Wittmann but only arrived in passing distance on the last lap and the 2014 champion managed to keep the final podium position.
Nico Muller also passed Spengler for fifth, with Gary Paffett taking seventh despite being sent into a spin by Jamie Green.
BMW's Tom Blomqvist, Mercedes's Daniel Juncadella and Audi's Miguel Molina completed the top 10.
Title contenders Robert Wickens and Green only finished 14th and 17th respectively, the latter receiving a drive-through for hitting Paffett.
Paul di Resta was the sole retirement of the race as his car was damaged following contact with Timo Glock at the start.
With two rounds remaining, Wittmann continues to lead the championship by 33 points over Mortara.
Race results
Cla | Driver | Car | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Edoardo Mortara | Audi RS5 DTM | 1:01'31.597 | |
2 | Lucas Auer | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 1:01'35.323 | 3.726 |
3 | Marco Wittmann | BMW M4 DTM | 1:01'39.123 | 7.526 |
4 | Mattias Ekström | Audi RS5 DTM | 1:01'39.446 | 7.849 |
5 | Nico Müller | Audi RS5 DTM | 1:01'40.779 | 9.182 |
6 | Bruno Spengler | BMW M4 DTM | 1:01'43.409 | 11.812 |
7 | Gary Paffett | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 1:01'50.570 | 18.973 |
8 | Tom Blomqvist | BMW M4 DTM | 1:01'52.492 | 20.895 |
9 | Daniel Juncadella | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 1:01'53.423 | 21.826 |
10 | Miguel Molina | Audi RS5 DTM | 1:01'56.506 | 24.909 |
11 | Maxime Martin | BMW M4 DTM | 1:01'58.817 | 27.220 |
12 | Timo Scheider | Audi RS5 DTM | 1:01'59.528 | 27.931 |
13 | Martin Tomczyk | BMW M4 DTM | 1:02'03.027 | 31.430 |
14 | Robert Wickens | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 1:02'04.043 | 32.446 |
15 | Timo Glock | BMW M4 DTM | 1:02'05.775 | 34.178 |
16 | Adrien Tambay | Audi RS5 DTM | 1:02'09.026 | 37.429 |
17 | Jamie Green | Audi RS5 DTM | 1:02'11.770 | 40.173 |
18 | Christian Vietoris | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 1:02'12.554 | 40.957 |
19 | Felix Rosenqvist | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 1:02'17.143 | 45.546 |
20 | Antonio Felix da Costa | BMW M4 DTM | 1:02'26.419 | 54.822 |
21 | Augusto Farfus | BMW M4 DTM | 1:02'31.603 | 1'00.006 |
22 | Mike Rockenfeller | Audi RS5 DTM | 1:02'32.168 | 1'00.571 |
23 | Maximilian Götz | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 1:02'40.477 | 1'08.880 |
Paul di Resta | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 2'11.143 | 42 Laps |
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