Molina wins – decision in the title battle between Wittmann and Mortara postponed

Molina takes the checkered flag for Audi

Miguel Molina has won the DTM race at the Hockenheimring Badn-Wurttemberg on Saturday in a dominant way. At the start, the Spaniard already moved up into first with his Audi RS 5 DTM and after 27 laps, he crossed the finish line as the winner. "The start was decisive for today's success," Molina said.

"After that, I had a good pace and was able to drive victory home." Molina's second season victory, the third race win of his DTM career, moved a little bit to the background because of the thrilling duel between Marco Wittmann and Edoardo Mortara in the battle for the 2016 DTM champions' title. On Saturday, Wittmann finished second and thus extended his lead in the drivers' standings. Mortara took the checkered flag in third place and thus kept the battle open until tomorrow's final race of the season.

Until the halfway point in the 40 minutes' race, everything looked set for an early decision in Wittmann's favor: the BMW driver was in an undisputed second place while Mortara was only eighth at the time. The Audi driver completed a clever and strategic race, making the best use of his DRS and gaining one position after another.

Molina

"I prepared the strategy for the race while in the car," Mortara said after the finish. "I carefully considered when to use DRS and saw my chances towards the end of the race. Today, we really were fast, but I hope that I am even more competitive tomorrow and can win the title." While Mortara's race was highly exciting, Wittmann's was a rather quiet affair.

"Finishing ahead of Edoardo was our goal and that is what we did. The three points that I scored more than Edoardo today can be very important at the end. However, he had a good pace and we still have a lot of work to do before tomorrow," Wittmann said.

Behind Antonio Felix da Costa and Mike Rockenfeller in fourth and fifth place, Rene Rast finished sixth in only his second DTM race. Timo Glock, Jamie Green, Tom Blomqvist and Paul Di Resta as the best-placed Mercedes-AMG driver rounded out the point-scoring positions in seventh to tenth place.

In the drivers' standings prior to Sunday's final DTM race of the season at the Hockenheimring, Marco Wittmann is in the lead with 194 points. He is 17 points clear of Edoardo Mortara (177 points). The 18th DTM season race will get underway on Sunday at 15.15 hrs. ARD is broadcasting live from Hockenheim from 15.00 hrs onwards.

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