Bruno Spengler took his first Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters win of the season at the Red Bull Ring in Austria, as BMW scored a 1-2-3 result with Marco Wittmann and Timo Glock taking their first podiums.
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Canadian Spengler moves to the top of the championship standings with his 14th victory in the DTM, having controlled the race from lights-to-flag. Rookie Wittmann, in only his third DTM race, was never close enough to Spengler to challenge for a pass and had to settle for his first podium in second.
Former F1 star Glock also took his first podium, with the result being the first time since their return that BMW locked out the podium. It is also the first 1-2-3 result for BMW in the German series since Roberto Ravaglia led a 1-2-3 at the Hockenheimring in 1992.
Fourth went to Audi’s Mike Rockenfeller after a determined drive that saw the German start down in 13th.
Mattais Ekström finished in fifth for Audi, after a late-race duel with BMW’s Augusto Farfus. The Swede, like Rockenfeller, also had to fight his way through the field having also started down the order in 15th after a difficult qualifying.
Sixth went to Farfus, who dropped off the pace in the later stages of the race having run in the top four in the first half.
Christian Vietoris was the top Mercedes-Benz driver in seventh, having never looked likely to challenge near the front. He finished ahead of Dirk Werner and Gary Paffett in eighth and ninth respectively, with the trio struggling to pass the slower Farfus in the closing laps of the race. Paffett had the pace to run in the top five but a pitstop penalty for pushing Martin Tomczyk off the circuit earlier in the race compromised the Brit’s race.
Pascal Wehrlein completed the top ten for the second time this season.
A disastrous race for Brits Jamie Green and Andy Priaulx meant that the Audi and BMW drivers finished down in 18th and 19th respectively, with neither having shown particularly good form over the weekend.
Having been forced off the road by Paffett, Tomczyk was also sent spinning into the barriers on the exit of the hairpin when Roberto Merhi refused to give the German space. Whilst Merhi was penalised for the incident and finished down in 20th, Tomczyk would later retire from the race after running at the back.
Americna Joey Hand also failed to finish a DTM race for the first time after his front-left wheel fell off following a disastrous pitstop.
More to follow.
And as last year, Spielberg provides one of the best DTM races – chuffed for Wittmann and Glock and the whole MTEK operation.