Di Resta Wins Thrilling Second DTM Race

Paul di Resta

In a dominant and undisputed way, Paul Di Resta won the DTM race at the Hockenheimring Baden-Wurttemberg on Sunday. With his Mercedes-AMG C 63 DTM, the Scot crossed the finish line after 37 laps with a margin of 13.024 seconds. For Di Resta, it is his seventh win in the DTM. His last win to date came in the autumn race at Hockenheim in 2010. Behind the Mercedes-Benz driver, BMW pairing Timo Glock and Augusto Farfus finished in second and third place. Gary Paffett put in a great performance to finish fifth behind Maxime Martin. The Brit had been running in second behind race winner Di Resta, but dropped back to eleventh following a drive-through penalty and then made his way back up to finish fifth. Nico Muller, who had scored his maiden DTM podium finish by coming home third in Saturday, was the best-placed Audi driver in the race on Sunday, finishing eighth.

Especially in the opening stages, the race had many similarities with the race on Saturday: door-to-door battles with plenty of contact, sometimes resulting into damage. With Bruno Sponger, Mattias Ekstrom and Timo Scheider, no less than three former DTM champions had to park their cars early after collisions. After his successful outing in the Rallycross World Championship, in which Ekstrom won the finale prior the DTM race, the Swede had hoped for a similarly good result in the DTM race.

After two of this season’s 18 races, Paul Di Resta is leading the drivers’ standings with 37 points from his fellow Mercedes-Benz driver Robert Wickens (26 points) and Edoardo Mortara (25 points). After his second place on Saturday, Wickens finished sixth today. In twelfth place, Mortara, who won yesterday, didn’t score any points this time. In the manufacturers’ standings, Mercedes-Benz (83 points) is taking over the lead from BMW (72 points) and Audi (47 points).

In total, the DTM season opener at the Hockenheimring attracted 78,500 spectators, an increase of some five percent compared to last year. In summery conditions, they could enjoy to an entertaining program with spectacular motorsport and live acts by Christina Sturmer, Finn Martin and DJ Antoine. In a fortnight already, May 21 and 22, the next DTM weekend is scheduled at Spielberg in Austria.

RACE 2 AT A GLANCE

di Resta leads at the start

14:30 Start of the formation lap. The second race of the weekend covers 60 minutes plus one lap and all drivers have to make one mandatory pit stop with tyre change. Paul Di Resta is on pole position, Augusto Farfus lines up alongside him.
Start Di Resta takes the lead. Martin moves up into second place. Paffett moves up to third past Farfus.
Lap 1 Spengler, Green, Ocon collide and strand in the gravel trap. Felix da Costa runs into Spengler, who, in turn, tangles with Ocon. Green has nowhere to go and collides with Ocon. Independently, Mortara spins. The safety car is deployed.
Lap 2 For Ocon and Green, the race is over. Spengler limps back to the pits with his BMW and retires as well.
Lap 3 The safety car will come in at the end of this lap. Di Resta is leading from Martin, Paffett, Farfus, Glock, Wickens, Blomqvist, Wittmann, Felix da Costa and Muller.
Lap 4 Restart. Paffett overtakes Martin and is now second.
Lap 5 DRS is now enabled. Tambay into the pits with a damaged car after contact. Continues after repair.
Lap 6 Ekstrom and Gotz battle for 13th place. Gotz gets past, but then loses his position coming into the Motodrom.
Lap 8 Gotz and Rockenfeller overtake Ekstrom. The Swede loses further positions to Mortara and Molina, his car is damaged after contact.
Lap 9 Warning for Molina for forcing another driver to leave the track. Under braking for the hairpin, Farfus overtakes Martin for third.
Lap 10 Mortara overtakes Rockenfeller for 14th.
Lap 11 Auer overtakes Felix da Costa for 16th. Da Costa's BMW is damaged after running over the curbs. He slides off the track and heads back to the pits – he retires.
Lap 12 Martin, Glock, Tomczyk, Rockenfeller into the pits for their mandatory stops.
Lap 13 Paffett, Wickens, Blomqvist, Wittmann, Juncadella into the pits. Paffett runs into the back of Wickens car while leaving the pits.
Lap 14 Di Resta, Farfus, Auer into the pits. Di Resta's stop takes long, the Scot rejoins just ahead of Paffett.
Lap 15 Muller, Mortara, Gotz into the pits. Paffett under investigation for a possible unsafe release.
Lap 16 Paffett gets a drive-through for an unsafe release after his pit stop. Ekstrom into the pits – he retires.
Lap 17 Vietoris into the pits.

di Resta gets fast pit service

Lap 18 Paffett comes into the pits for his penalty, Scheider comes in and retires.
Lap 20 Glock overtakes Martin for fourth. Farfus overtakes Molina and is second.
Lap 22 Molina, who is running third, is the only driver yet to make a pit stop.
Lap 23 Paffett overtakes Muller for eighth. Molina heads into the pits, but spins on the pit lane entry and retires.
Lap 24 All drivers now having made their pit stop or retired, Di Resta is leading from Farfus, Glock, Martin, Wickens, Blomqvist, Tomczyk, Paffett, Muller and Wittmann.
Lap 25 Paffett overtakes Tomczyk for seventh.
Lap 29 In the lead, Di Resta has a margin of 9.9 seconds over Farfus who, in turn, is 2.0 seconds behind Glock. Auer slides off the track, but stays in 16th place.
Lap 30 Paffett overtakes Blomqvist for sixth. Juncadella off at Sachskurve, slow zone 3 activated.
Lap 32 Slow zone 3 ended. Wickens is closing up to Martin, who is fourth.
Lap 33 Glock overtakes Farfus and is now second. Paffett overtakes Wickens for fifth. Vietoris gets a drive-through for speeding under slow zone.
Lap 34 Tomczyk slides off the track coming into the Motodrom while in ninth place. Wittmann gets past, Tomczyk drops to tenth. Vietoris comes in for his penalty.
Lap 35 Auer into the pits.
Lap 37 Final lap.
Finish Di Resta wins from Glock, Farfus, Martin, Paffett, Wickens, Blomqvist, Muller, Wittmann and Tomczyk.

Results
1. Paul di Resta GBR Mercedes-AMG DTM Team HWA 37 laps
2. Timo Glock GER BMW Team RMG +13.024s
3. Augusto Farfus BRA BMW Team MTEK +13.905s
4. Maxime Martin BEL BMW Team RBM +14.493s
5. Gary Paffett GBR Mercedes-AMG DTM Team ART +15.055s
6. Robert Wickens CAN Mercedes-AMG DTM Team HWA +19.377s
7. Tom Blomqvist GBR BMW Team RBM +21.690s
8. Nico Muller SUI Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline +22.220s
9. Marco Wittmann GER BMW Team RMG +23.790s
10. Martin Tomczyk GER BMW Team Schnitzer +24.454s
11. Mike Rockenfeller GER Audi Sport Team Phoenix +31.303s
12. Edoardo Mortara ITA Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline +50.053s
13. Maximilian Gotz GER Mercedes-AMG DTM Team HWA +56.722s
14. Adrien Tambay FRA Audi Sport Team Rosberg +1m 02.408s
15. Christian Vietoris GER Mercedes-AMG DTM Team Mucke +1m 05.985s
16. Lucas Auer AUT Mercedes-AMG DTM Team Mucke +2 laps
Did not finish
17. Daniel Juncadella ESP Mercedes-AMG DTM Team HWA 29 laps completed
18. Miguel Molina ESP Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline 22 laps completed
19. Timo Scheider GER Audi Sport Team Phoenix 18 laps completed
20. Mattias Ekstrom SWE Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline 16 laps completed
21. Antonio Felix da Costa POR BMW Team Schnitzer 11 laps completed
22. Bruno Spengler CAN BMW Team MTEK 1 lap completed
23. Jamie Green GBR Audi Sport Team Rosberg 0 laps completed
24. Esteban Ocon FRA Mercedes-AMG DTM Team ART 0 laps completed