Audi Sport’s Miguel Molina take the run of different winners in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters this year to five, as the Team Abt Sportsline had to battle his way back past Team Rosberg’s Jamie Green at the EuroSpeedway Lausitzring to take his second career win.
Molina would later dedicate his win at the post-race press conference to his fellow countrymen, Moto2 ace Luis Salom and well-respected motorsport journalist, Carlos Castellá, who have recently passed away.
Green would go side-by-side through turns one to three on the very first lap, but the Spaniard used DRS to his advantage, retaking the lead on lap 8 and then comfortably extended his lead to win by 2.034 seconds.
Robert Wickens finished third, having dispatched Marco Wittmann in the early goings, but the latter now leads the points’ standings. The 2014 Champion valiantly fended off the chasing BWT C63 AMG DTMs of Lucas Auer and Christian Vietoris, having run out of DRS allocation in the latter stages.
Vietoris had to settle for fifth, ahead of a charging Mattias Ekström, whilst Auer would end up sideways trying to pass Wittmann towards the end.
The Austrian dropped back, finishing seventh ahead of Edoardo Mortara, who made some good passes during the race, having started from 14th on the grid. The Italian qualified 11th, but had to take a three-place grid drop, due to his incident with António Félix da Costa at Spielberg.
Maxime Martin would help BMW take some comfort in their lead in the constructors’ championship by taking ninth place at the flag, as the Munich brand’s advantage is now reduced to 53 points.
Nico Müller would be the last of the Audis to complete the top ten, with Martin Tomczyk being the only retirement of the race. This was due to a hefty hit to the right rear of his BMW from Esteban Ocon on Lap 6, with the Frenchman later handed a drive-through penalty for the collision.
Gary Paffett was denied another potential points finish, as the Brit was pushed off track by Adrien Tambay into turn eight on the very first lap, whilst battling with Müller.
It meant that the 2005 champion finished 14th behind Stuttgart stablemate Paul Di Resta, who is now equal on points with Wickens in the points’ standings.
BMW Team RMG continues to lead the Team championship with 84 points, which gives them an 11-point advantage over Team RBM, with Team Abt Sportsline a further point behind.
The final free practice session of the weekend gets underway at 09:00 local time (British Summer Time), lasting for 30 minutes.
Race result
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME/GAP | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 17 | Miguel MOLINA |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt | Audi RS5 DTM | 32 | 42:04.244 | 1:18.149 | 1 |
| 2 | 53 | Jamie GREEN |  |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 32 | 2.034 | 1:18.263 | 2 |
| 3 | 6 | Robert WICKENS |  |
SILBERPFEIL Energy/UBFS Invest Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 32 | 4.175 | 1:18.306 | 4 |
| 4 | 11 | Marco WITTMANN |  |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 32 | 8.724 | 1:18.303 | 3 |
| 5 | 8 | Christian VIETORIS | |
BWT Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 32 | 9.759 | 1:18.254 | 6 |
| 6 | 5 | Mattias EKSTRÖM |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 32 | 10.398 | 1:18.288 | 7 |
| 7 | 22 | Lucas AUER |  |
BWT Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 32 | 10.794 | 1:18.210 | 5 |
| 8 | 48 | Edoardo MORTARA |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 32 | 14.437 | 1:18.540 | 14 |
| 9 | 36 | Maxime MARTIN |  |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 32 | 17.808 | 1:18.663 | 8 |
| 10 | 51 | Nico MÜLLER |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt | Audi RS5 DTM | 32 | 18.414 | 1:18.556 | 10 |
| 11 | 7 | Bruno SPENGLER | |
BMW Team MTEK | BMW M4 DTM | 32 | 18.965 | 1:18.626 | 15 |
| 12 | 16 | Timo GLOCK | |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 32 | 22.282 | 1:18.611 | 13 |
| 13 | 3 | Paul di RESTA | |
Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 32 | 31.821 | 1:18.717 | 21 |
| 14 | 2 | Gary PAFFETT | |
EURONICS/FREE MEN’S WORLD Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 32 | 33.128 | 1:18.700 | 11 |
| 15 | 13 | António Félix da COSTA |  |
BMW Team Schnitzer | BMW M4 DTM | 32 | 36.391 | 1:18.806 | 19 |
| 16 | 84 | Maximilian GÖTZ | |
Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 32 | 38.4 | 1:18.886 | 20 |
| 17 | 10 | Timo SCHEIDER | |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 32 | 39.396 | 1:18.838 | 17 |
| 18 | 12 | Daniel JUNCADELLA | |
SILBERPFEIL Energy/UBFS Invest Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 32 | 40.298 | 1:18.840 | 22 |
| 19 | 99 | Mike ROCKENFELLER | |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 32 | 41.509 | 1:18.649 | 12 |
| 20 | 27 | Adrien TAMBAY |  |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 32 | 42.741 | 1:19.068 | 9 |
| 21 | 18 | Augusto FARFUS |  |
BMW Team MTEK | BMW M4 DTM | 32 | 43.286 | 1:18.978 | 23 |
| 22 | 31 | Tom BLOMQVIST | |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 32 | 43.912 | 1:18.775 | 18 |
| 23 | 34 | Esteban OCON | |
EURONICS/FREE MEN’S WORLD Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 32 | 49.778 | 1:18.490 | 16 |
| R | 100 | Martin TOMCZYK | |
BMW Team Schnitzer | BMW M4 DTM | 5 | 27 LAPS | 1:19.640 | 24 |