Pascal Wehrlein wins as Mercedes dominate race one

The first race of the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) weekend at the Norisring saw Mercedes-Benz’s Pascal Wehrlein take his second career victory, leading home a dominant display once again for the Stuttgart manufacturer.

Last year’s race winner Robert Wickens would finish runner-up, just 0.356 seconds behind the current Mercedes AMG Petronas test and reserve driver, who gambled on slick tyres as the rain started to fall before the start.

Gary Paffett completed a clean sweep for Mercedes on the podium, with race one pole sitter Christian Vietoris rounding off a historic 1-2-3-4, as all four drivers were separated by just 1.362 seconds. Early race leader Vietoris had started the race on wet tyres, and was beaten by Wehrlein as he exited the pits after changing to slicks, with his early 30-second race lead not quite proving enough to make a pit stop. 2012 champion Bruno Spengler was the best placed BMW driver in fifth, having fought his way back through the midfield.

With cars going five wide into turn one on the opening lap, Lucas Auer and Miguel Molina came into contact on the inside of the apex, as did Mattias Ekström and Nico Müller around the outside. Molina would also serve a drive-through penalty for a jump start on lights out.

After a brief Safety Car intervention, the track began to dry out once again, forcing the likes of Paffett, Wickens and Martin Tomcyzk, who finished sixth, to pit around the 15 minute mark.

BMW Motorsport’s Maxime Martin retired on lap five, as did Tom Blomqvist just five laps later, who was a helpless victim of the Auer/Molina incident earlier on.

Jamie Green’s race went from bad to worse, as the current points leader slipped to 11th early on, before contact between himself and Mercedes’ Paul di Resta into the Scholler Esses forced the Scot to retire with right rear suspension damage on lap 17. Green would only be able to recover to seventh, as he finished as the top Audi driver.

Maximilian Götz would retire on the same lap as Di Resta, being the final unclassified driver of the race. Augusto Farfus would finish eighth, ahead of Marco Wittmann and Mercedes’ Daniel Juncadella, who made it five Stuttgart cars in the top ten.

For Audi Sport, it was not a race to remember for the remainder of their squad, as Edoardo Mortara finished 11th and Mike Rockenfeller 14th. With Timo Scheider, Mattias Ekström, Nico Müller, Adrien Tambay and Miguel Molina being the last of the finishers in the race, the Ingolstadt manufacturer has suffered a dent in their lead in the manufacturers’ standings, which now stands at 109 points over Mercedes-Benz.

Qualifying for race two begins on Sunday morning at 11:40 CEST (1040 BST).
Race result

POS	NO	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME/GAP	BEST	GD
1	94	Pascal WEHRLEIN		gooix / Original-Teile Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	46	41:02.170	49.718	5
2	6	Robert WICKENS		SILBERPFEIL Energy Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	46	0.356	49.563	7
3	2	Gary PAFFETT		EURONICS / BWT Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	46	0.742	49.488	2
4	8	Christian VIETORIS		gooix / Original-Teile Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	46	1.362	49.515	1
5	7	Bruno SPENGLER		BMW Team MTEK	BMW M4 DTM	46	2.784	49.507	13
6	77	Martin TOMCZYK		BMW Team Schnitzer	BMW M4 DTM	46	4.902	49.333	10
7	53	Jamie GREEN		Audi Sport Team Rosberg	Audi RS5 DTM	46	5.279	49.297	3
8	18	Augusto FARFUS		BMW Team RBM	BMW M4 DTM	46	8.572	49.750	6
9	1	Marco WITTMANN		BMW Team RMG	BMW M4 DTM	46	8.943	49.603	8
10	12	Daniel JUNCADELLA		PETRONAS Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	46	9.262	49.673	11
11	48	Edoardo MORTARA		Audi Sport Team Abt	Audi RS5 DTM	46	11.482	49.641	16
12	13	António Félix da COSTA		BMW Team Schnitzer	BMW M4 DTM	46	13.318	49.554	18
13	16	Timo GLOCK		BMW Team MTEK	BMW M4 DTM	46	15.990	49.566	15
14	99	Mike ROCKENFELLER		Audi Sport Team Phoenix	Audi RS5 DTM	46	17.695	49.694	22
15	22	Lucas AUER		EURONICS / BWT Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	46	17.935	49.588	12
16	10	Timo SCHEIDER		Audi Sport Team Phoenix	Audi RS5 DTM	46	20.717	49.698	24
17	5	Mattias EKSTRÖM		Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline	Audi RS5 DTM	46	21.469	49.787	21
18	51	Nico MÜLLER		Audi Sport Team Rosberg	Audi RS5 DTM	46	25.638	49.736	19
19	27	Adrien TAMBAY		Audi Sport Team Abt	Audi RS5 DTM	46	40.423	49.425	23
20	17	Miguel MOLINA		Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline	Audi RS5 DTM	46	47.794	49.764	9
R	3	Paul di RESTA		SILBERPFEIL Energy Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	17	29 LAPS	53.213	4
R	84	Maximilian GÖTZ		PETRONAS Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	17	29 LAPS	54.353	20
R	31	Tom BLOMQVIST		BMW Team RBM	BMW M4 DTM	10	36 LAPS	58.501	17
R	36	Maxime MARTIN		BMW Team RMG	BMW M4 DTM	5	41 LAPS	1:02.902	14

Complete race results