Mike Rockenfeller takes dominant Moscow race two victory

Mike Rockenfeller completed a dominant display at Moscow Raceway, as the 2013 Champion won race 12 of the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters series, taking his first win of the year.

The Team Phoenix driver fended off initial attacks from eventual runner-up, Bruno Spengler, Maxime Martin and Jamie Green, controlling the race from lights out until chequered flag.

Rockenfeller, who took his last DTM win two years ago at Moscow Raceway,  took the chequered flag ahead of Bruno Spengler by 4.132 seconds.

Mattias Ekström was able to make his way back to the top of the drivers’ standing, as the Swede overtook Maxime Martin for the last step on the podium with just over seven minutes remaining.

His chief rival, Pascal Wehrlein, finished in 10th place, having fought hard against Edoardo Mortara for most of the race. The 20-year-old was unable to progress past Nico Müller in the final stages, and is now 6 points behind Ekström in the drivers’ s standings.

Martin and Green would round out the top five, with the Brit going off track at the final corner.

Gary Paffett was the highest placed Mercedes driver, finshing sixth, ahead of defending champion Marco Wittmann and title contender Mortara.

The action started hard and fast, with drivers going three wide into the technical sections of the 3.931-km track. Multiple battles started to develop up and down the field, with a seven-way fight for second place occurring at one point.

Team Schnitzer’s Martin Tomczyk was the only retirement of the race, after another difficult weekend for the 2012 champion, who pulled his M4 into the garage on lap 20.

Team RBM team mates, Augusto Farfus and Tom Blomqvist, would end up outside the top ten, but made it five BMW M4 DTMs in the top half of the field.

Daniel Juncadella finished in 13th, ahead of Audi’s Miguel Molina and Mercedes’ Paul Di Resta, who completed the top fifteen.

Adrien Tambay had another race to forget, as the Frenchman finished in 16th, ahead of Timo Glock. Maximillian Götz ended up 18th, leading Lucas Auer and Christian Vietoris to the finish line.

DTM débutant Antonio Giovinazzi recorded his second successive finish this weekend, as the Italian brought his AUTO TEST RS5 DTM home in 21st place, despite going off on the very first lap.

Robert Wickens finished ahead of BMW’s António Félix da Costa, who was the last classified finisher of the race.

The DTM now heads to Oschersleben in a fortnight’s time, for races 13 and 14 of the championship.
Race result

POS	NO	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME/GAP	BEST	GD
1	99	Mike ROCKENFELLER		Audi Sport Team Phoenix	Audi RS5 DTM	41	1:02:14.818	1:29.870	1
2	7	Bruno SPENGLER		BMW Team MTEK	BMW M4 DTM	41	4.132	1:30.007	2
3	5	Mattias EKSTRÖM		Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline	Audi RS5 DTM	41	9.204	1:29.892	5
4	36	Maxime MARTIN		BMW Team RMG	BMW M4 DTM	41	11.789	1:29.968	3
5	53	Jamie GREEN		Audi Sport Team Rosberg	Audi RS5 DTM	41	12.585	1:30.040	4
6	2	Gary PAFFETT		EURONICS / BWT Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	41	14.393	1:30.203	7
7	1	Marco WITTMANN		BMW Team RMG	BMW M4 DTM	41	16.593	1:30.086	10
8	48	Edoardo MORTARA		Audi Sport Team Abt	Audi RS5 DTM	41	18.05	1:30.130	13
9	51	Nico MÜLLER		Audi Sport Team Rosberg	Audi RS5 DTM	41	18.548	1:30.049	6
10	94	Pascal WEHRLEIN		gooix / Original-Teile Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	41	18.81	1:30.015	11
11	18	Augusto FARFUS		BMW Team RBM	BMW M4 DTM	41	24.207	1:30.253	9
12	31	Tom BLOMQVIST		BMW Team RBM	BMW M4 DTM	41	24.939	1:30.374	8
13	12	Daniel JUNCADELLA		PETRONAS Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	41	25.237	1:30.392	12
14	17	Miguel MOLINA		Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline	Audi RS5 DTM	41	25.686	1:30.300	18
15	3	Paul di RESTA		SILBERPFEIL Energy Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	41	27.253	1:30.430	21
16	27	Adrien TAMBAY		Audi Sport Team Abt	Audi RS5 DTM	41	32.423	1:30.319	19
17	16	Timo GLOCK		BMW Team MTEK	BMW M4 DTM	41	33.412	1:30.369	14
18	84	Maximilian GÖTZ		PETRONAS Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	41	36.718	1:30.558	17
19	22	Lucas AUER		EURONICS / BWT Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	41	36.947	1:29.979	15
20	8	Christian VIETORIS		gooix / Original-Teile Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	41	43.03	1:30.775	22
21	93	Antonio GIOVINAZZI		Audi Sport Team Phoenix	Audi RS5 DTM	41	53.048	1:30.721	24
22	6	Robert WICKENS		SILBERPFEIL Energy Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	41	55.033	1:30.664	16
23	13	António Félix da COSTA		BMW Team Schnitzer	BMW M4 DTM	41	0.000869814814814815	1:30.963	20
R	77	Martin TOMCZYK		BMW Team Schnitzer	BMW M4 DTM	18	23 LAPS	1:31.775	23

Complete race results