Edo Mortara scores maiden DTM race win at Spielberg

Edo Mortara

Huge joy at Audi Sport Team Rosberg: After starting from the pole position, the Italian Edoardo Mortara won the fourth round of the 2012 DTM at the Red Bull Ring in Austria in front of 48,500 spectators (throughout the weekend). The new Audi A5 DTM thus celebrated its first victory. Mattias Ekström improved to second place in the standings.

The Red Bull Ring is apparently a good track for premieres. After Audi Sport Team Phoenix had clinched its first DTM success at Spielberg last year, which laid the foundation for the subsequent title win, the time had come for Audi Sport Team Rosberg – the team founded by ex-Formula One World Champion Keke Rosberg – to do so this year – in an extremely thrilling race.

Despite a less than perfect start Edoardo Mortara in his Playboy Audi A5 DTM entered turn one as the race leader and controlled the pace at the front of the field throughout the entire 47 laps. After the second mandatory pit stop, Mortara had to fend off attacks by leader of the standings Gary Paffett (Mercedes-Benz) and Martin Tomczyk (BMW) which involved a number of fierce duels. Mortara kept his cool in both attacks, though, managed to work out a small cushion again and ultimately crossed the finish line as the winner with a 1.068-second advantage.

"That was a fantastic weekend," beamed "Edo" after taking his first victory in what was only his 14th DTM race. "My first pole position yesterday and my first victory today – I’m simply super-happy. ‘Thank you’ to Audi Sport and ‘thank you’ to Team Rosberg – my guys worked incredibly hard in the past few weeks and months. This is the first reward today. I’m hoping for things to continue this way because I think we learned a lot here at Spielberg and made a major step forward. The battle with Gary (Paffett) was tough – but when you’re in contention for victory you won’t give in easily."

After four rounds, Paffett is in the lead with 83 points from Mattias Ekström (47 points) and Jamie Green (44 points). Joey Hand (BMW), who was lying in 6th position for a long time during the race, eventually dropped back to 9th, earning his first 2 DTM points.

Results – 47 laps: