Audi Sport’s Jamie Green took a lights-to-flag victory at Circuit Park Zandvoort in the tenth Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) race of the current season, having fought hard against several different drivers in a dramatic race around the 4.307-km circuit.
The Team Rosberg driver led home a British 1-2, as 2005 champion Gary Paffett brought home his EURONICS Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG DTM 9.731 seconds behind his countryman, with Team Abt’s Edoardo Mortara completing the podium.
Green was under pressure from the Mercedes pairing of Robert Wickens and Christian Vietoris, as the former stormed off the start into third place heading into Tarzanbocht.
Wickens suffered a left front puncture on the penultimate lap whilst chasing down Green, putting him wide onto the grass at turn, forcing him to pit to have a tyre change and the grass moved out of the front cooling ducts.
Vietoris found himself having to retire on the same lap, due to the left front suspension collapsing on his C63 AMG DTM shortly after Wickens had his puncture.
Timo Scheider was the first driver to retire, having been spun around by Augusto Farfus on the very first lap at the turn 11/12 complex. which ended up with the Brazilian serving a drive-through the very next lap.
Miguel Molina also suffered another difficult race, as the Spaniard was battling António Félix da Costa for 16th place, before the pair clashed several times, which included the Portuguese driver apparently not accelerating on the straight out of turn two.
This forced Molina to pit on lap 28 to retire, with severe damage to the right front corner, which made the bonnet of his RS5 DTM ride up into his field of vision.
Maximilian Götz had to park his C63 AMG DTM on lap 24, as the German’s left rear tyre was insecure and rolled loose after his mandatory pitstop, bringing out the yellow flags.
Marco Wittmann profited from the misfortune Wickens suffered, as the points leader finished fourth, which means he now still leads the title race ahead of Green by seven points.
Nico Müller made it three Audis in the top five, ahead of Timo Glock, with a charging Mattias Ekström taking a hard-fought seventh.
Paul Di Resta and Lucas Auer made it three Mercedes drivers in the top ten, taking eighth and ninth place respectively, with the latter making one of the passes of the race past Ekström for what was tenth place on lap 32.
Auer was one of two Mercedes drivers that made significant progress in the race, having started 19th. Daniel Juncadella was the other, after having crashed out in qualifying, as the Spaniard made his way steadily up to 12th place at the finish.
Tom Blomqvist, who was forced off the track by Auer during the race, would complete the top ten, with the Anglo-Swede nearly four and a half seconds ahead of stablemate Martin Tomczyk.
Team MTEK’s Farfus and Bruno Spengler ended up 13th and 14th, as the BMW Bank M4 DTM driver would have to pit on the first lap due to an insecure driver’s door.
Mike Rockenfeller finished 15th, as débutant René Rast had a fairly good first outing, finishing 19th. Da Costa finished 17th ahead of rookie Esteban Ocon, even after the pair clashed on lap 26.
Wittmann now leaves the Dutch sea coast with 105 points to his name, with Green seven and Mortara 17 points adrift. Wickens is now 22 points behind the BMW driver, but there are still eight races left to run this year.
Stefan Reinhold’s Team RMG leads the team standings with 153 points, ahead of Team Abt Sportsline just seven points behind.
BMW still keep their lead in terms of the constructors’ title, but are only ten points ahead of Audi Sport, with Mercedes AMG-DTM bringing up the car 54 points behind the Munich manufacturer.
The series now heads to Russia for rounds 11 and 12 of the 2016 campaign, which takes place between the 19th and 21 of August, as Moscow Raceway sets the scene for the next set of action.
Race result
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME/GAP | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 53 | Jamie GREEN |  |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 39 | 1:01:54.997 | 1:33.734 | 1 |
| 2 | 2 | Gary PAFFETT | |
EURONICS/FREE MEN’S WORLD Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 39 | 9.731 | 1:33.895 | 2 |
| 3 | 48 | Edoardo MORTARA |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 39 | 14.153 | 1:33.970 | 4 |
| 4 | 11 | Marco WITTMANN |  |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 39 | 18.833 | 1:33.768 | 7 |
| 5 | 51 | Nico MÜLLER |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt | Audi RS5 DTM | 39 | 19.629 | 1:34.275 | 10 |
| 6 | 16 | Timo GLOCK | |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 39 | 21.455 | 1:33.939 | 6 |
| 7 | 5 | Mattias EKSTRÖM |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 39 | 24.135 | 1:33.842 | 9 |
| 8 | 3 | Paul di RESTA | |
Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 39 | 28.983 | 1:34.271 | 13 |
| 9 | 22 | Lucas AUER |  |
BWT Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 39 | 29.43 | 1:33.662 | 19 |
| 10 | 31 | Tom BLOMQVIST | |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 39 | 29.875 | 1:33.980 | 11 |
| 11 | 100 | Martin TOMCZYK | |
BMW Team Schnitzer | BMW M4 DTM | 39 | 34.349 | 1:34.066 | 16 |
| 12 | 12 | Daniel JUNCADELLA |  |
SILBERPFEIL Energy/UBFS Invest Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 39 | 34.807 | 1:33.087 | 24 |
| 13 | 18 | Augusto FARFUS |  |
BMW Team MTEK | BMW M4 DTM | 39 | 36.509 | 1:33.675 | 17 |
| 14 | 7 | Bruno SPENGLER |  |
BMW Team MTEK | BMW M4 DTM | 39 | 37.729 | 1:33.502 | 14 |
| 15 | 99 | Mike ROCKENFELLER | |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 39 | 39.818 | 1:33.705 | 18 |
| 16 | 6 | Robert WICKENS | |
SILBERPFEIL Energy/UBFS Invest Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 39 | 40.345 | 1:33.833 | 5 |
| 17 | 13 | António Félix da COSTA |  |
BMW Team Schnitzer | BMW M4 DTM | 39 | 45.028 | 1:33.984 | 15 |
| 18 | 34 | Esteban OCON |  |
EURONICS/FREE MEN’S WORLD Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 39 | 46.187 | 1:34.396 | 8 |
| 19 | 72 | René RAST | |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 39 | 46.623 | 1:33.977 | 22 |
| 20 | 8 | Christian VIETORIS | |
BWT Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 35 | 4 LAPS | 1:33.840 | 3 |
| R | 36 | Maxime MARTIN |  |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 28 | 11 LAPS | 1:33.981 | 21 |
| R | 17 | Miguel MOLINA | |
Audi Sport Team Abt | Audi RS5 DTM | 28 | 11 LAPS | 1:34.491 | 12 |
| R | 84 | Maximilian GÖTZ | |
Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 24 | 15 LAPS | 1:33.949 | 23 |
| R | 10 | Timo SCHEIDER | |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 3 | 36 LAPS | 1:44.613 | 20 |