Zandvoort DTM: Da Costa scores maiden victory

Despite a brief rain shower in the closing stages, da Costa held off the challenge of BMW stablemates Augusto Farfus, Bruno Spengler and Timo Glock.

From pole position, da Costa led as Spengler was slow away and had to battle Farfus at Tarzan.

Da Costa – rejected by the Toro Rosso F1 squad a few years ago – led a BMW 1-2-3-4 ahead of Spengler, Farfus and Marco Wittmann, with Miguel Molina and Dani Juncadella leading the way for Audi and Mercedes respectively.

After a static first stint, Spengler and Wittmann were the first of the top four to make his mandatory pitstop at the end of lap 12, as did Molina and Juncadella – who lost a heap of time and places with a slow stop.

Molina actually got ahead of Wittmann, but the latter managed to jump back past him on the exit of the pitlane.

Molina got into the back of Wittmann at Tarzan, as they battled the long-running Mercedes of Lucas Auer.

Wittmann then punted Auer into a spin, and a concertina effect behind led to Martin Tomczyk sustaining bonnet damage. This caused him to back off on the start/finish straight, which almost caused a huge pile-up behind him.

Da Costa and Farfus pitted together a lap later, and Farfus gained a place at Spengler’s expense through the pitstop cycle.

The BMW train cruised to the finish in the order da Costa, Farfus, Spengler, Glock and Wittmann.

Further back, Pascal Wehrlein bullied his Mercedes past Molina for sixth with a robust move at Tarzan, while Tom Blomqvist spun out Robert Wickens and quite rightly received a drive-through penalty.

Juncadella had the biggest moment of the race when he clashed with Edoardo Mortara through the fast uphill sweepers, briefly flying through the air and coming to a halt mercifully without hitting anything.

Yesterday’s podium finisher Maxime Martin was hit twice by Audis at Tarzan, dropping to the back of the field.