Spielberg DTM: Wittmann holds off Blomqvist for Race 1 win

The win was Wittmann's sixth in the series and his first in 2016 after the Hockenheim opener yielded only four points.

It was a controlled start for Wittmann, the 2014 champion holding off Blomqvist into Turn 1, as Mortara passed teammate Adrien Tambay for third.

And that would mark the beginning of a difficult opening stint for the Frenchman, who then slipped behind Timo Glock into Remus and was also passed by Martin Tomczyk on corner exit.

This made it four BMW cars in the top five and it appeared that the Bavarian marque's duo of Wittmann and Blomqvist would quickly pull away from Mortara.

However, that would not be the case, the front row starters running half a second apart throughout the entire opening half of the race, with Audi's Italian lone wolf hanging on.

The race finally settled down at that point, Wittmann gaining a few more tenths on Blomqvist to ensure he would comfortably see out the race to the chequered flag.

Having withstood brief pressure from Glock, Mortara soon shook off the ex-F1 driver to deny BMW a podium lockout, with Tomczyk finishing a close fifth behind Glock.

While the status quo was being maintained in the top five, Tambay continued to tumble down the order, passed by Maxime Martin, Antonio Felix da Costa and Paul di Resta.

Of those overtakes, the Portuguese driver's move took place in the Remus corner under yellow flags, as Dani Juncadella had parked his Mercedes there following a collision with teammate Christian Vietoris. As such, Felix da Costa was swiftly handed a drive-through penalty.

As a result, di Resta followed Martin home in seventh, finishing as the top Mercedes in the field, with Tambay taking eighth.

Augusto Farfus claimed ninth,  making it six BMW cars in the top 10, while Audi's Nico Muller muscled his way into the top 10.

Race results

Pos.	Driver	Team	Time/Gap
1	Marco Wittmann	BMW	42:10.795
2	Tom Blomqvist	BMW	0.726
3	Edoardo Mortara	Audi	1.251
4	Timo Glock	BMW	5.566
5	Martin Tomczyk	BMW	6.222
6	Maxime Martin	BMW	10.712
7	Paul di Resta	Mercedes	12.182
8	Adrien Tambay	Audi	12.736
9	Augusto Farfus	BMW	15.146
10	Nico Muller	Audi	15.750
11	Robert Wickens	Mercedes	16.505
12	Mike Rockenfeller	Audi	17.084
13	Bruno Spengler	BMW	18.730
14	Jamie Green	Audi	21.135
15	Maximilian Gotz	Mercedes	21.292
16	Mattias Ekstrom	Audi	21.783
17	Timo Scheider	Audi	22.534
18	Gary Paffett	Mercedes	24.050
19	Miguel Molina	Audi	24.743
20	Esteban Ocon	Mercedes	25.610
21	Lucas Auer	Mercedes	26.430
22	Antonio Felix da Costa	BMW	28.871
Ret	Christian Vietoris	Mercedes
Ret	Dani Juncadella	Mercedes