Italy’s Edoardo Mortara kept his DTM title chances alive and well at the Nürburgring this afternoon, as the Team Abt driver took a well-earned third win of the season at the feature race, ahead of Mücke Motorsport’s Lucas Auer and BMW Team RMG’s Marco Wittmann.
Mortara was able to make up good ground at the start, getting his way up to fourth behind Britain’s Jamie Green, whose race would come undone, after a clash with fellow countryman Gary Paffett on lap 24.
But Mortara was showing incredible pace to take the lead away from Auer into turn one on lap 35, before comfortably cruising to a sixth DTM career win by 3.726 seconds after 43 laps.
Green was handed a drive-through penalty as a result, and the Team Phoenix driver ended up finishing in 17th place behind teammate Adrien Tambay.
Wittmann would have to battle for the final podium to the finish line, as Mattias Ekström was putting the BMW driver under pressure over a four-lap battle. Switzerland’s Nico Müller would take another top five finish behind the Swede, but set the fastest lap of the race with a 1:24.103.
Bruno Spengler’s pace dropped off towards the tail end of the race, having been passed by both Ekström and Müller in the last few laps, but the Canadian finished sixth, ahead of Paffett, who recovered well from his clash with Green, whilst Tom Blomqvist made it three BMWs in the top ten with eighth place.
Daniel Juncadella took ninth place and recorded his second points finish of the 2016 season, ahead of countryman Miguel Molina, who was battling for position earlier on with António Félix da Costa and Maximilian Götz, making it four Audis in the top ten.
Both Da Costa and Götz finished 20th and 23rd respectively, having slipped down the order.
Maxime Martin fought his way back to 11th place, having started from 19th on the grid, ahead of two-time champion Timo Scheider, who was battling with Robert Wickens, whose difficult day concluded with a non-points finish in 14th place, behind Martin Tomczyk.
Tomczyk was still able to make headway, despite being hit by Team ART rookie Felix Rosenqvist in the pit lane on lap 22, with the Swede finishing 19th after serving a drive-through penalty.
Timo Glock also had a difficult race after the first turn, having been collected by Paul Di Resta at the very first time, who had no room thanks to Scheider, who went up his inside.
The Scot now has a mathematical chance to take a second title, but his retirement with left front damage to his Mercedes, meant he is pretty much out of the running. A stewards’ enquiry into the first-lap incident is currently being investigate, which could see him being handed a penalty for the next race weekend in Hungary.
Augusto Farfus was in the hunt for a welcome points finish, battling in the top five, before the Brazilian was handed a ten-second stop/go penalty for an unsafe release whilst Molina and Wickens took their mandatory stops, which saw him finish 21st, ahead of 2013 champion Mike Rockenfeller.
Wittmann has 170 points to his name with four races remaining, with Mortara 33 points behind in second. Wickens is just a single point ahead of Green, despite two non-scores this weekend, with Di Resta 70 points of the current leader.
Stefan Reinhold’s Team RMG are now only nine points ahead of Hans-Jürgen Abt’s Team Abt Sportsline in the race for the team title, following the good points haul from the latter this race, whilst BMW now extends their lead in the manufacturers’ standings to 55 points over Audi, with Mercedes a further 36 points adrift.
The penultimate race weekend of the 2016 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) season takes place at the famed Hungaroring in two weeks’ time between the 23rd and 25th of September, as the fight for all three titles in the series are hotting up.
Race result
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME/GAP | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 48 | Edoardo MORTARA |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 43 | 1:01:31.597 | 1:24.470 | 6 |
| 2 | 22 | Lucas AUER |  |
BWT Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 43 | 3.726 | 1:24.608 | 1 |
| 3 | 11 | Marco WITTMANN |  |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 43 | 7.526 | 1:24.750 | 2 |
| 4 | 5 | Mattias EKSTRÖM |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 43 | 7.849 | 1:24.274 | 10 |
| 5 | 51 | Nico MÜLLER |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt | Audi RS5 DTM | 43 | 9.182 | 1:24.103 | 14 |
| 6 | 7 | Bruno SPENGLER |  |
BMW Team MTEK | BMW M4 DTM | 43 | 11.812 | 1:24.844 | 3 |
| 7 | 2 | Gary PAFFETT |  |
EURONICS/FREE MEN’S WORLD Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 43 | 18.973 | 1:24.497 | 11 |
| 8 | 31 | Tom BLOMQVIST | |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 43 | 20.895 | 1:24.914 | 4 |
| 9 | 12 | Daniel JUNCADELLA |  |
SILBERPFEIL Energy/UBFS Invest Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 43 | 21.826 | 1:24.731 | 9 |
| 10 | 17 | Miguel MOLINA | |
Audi Sport Team Abt | Audi RS5 DTM | 43 | 24.909 | 1:24.644 | 8 |
| 11 | 36 | Maxime MARTIN |  |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 43 | 27.220 | 1:24.811 | 19 |
| 12 | 10 | Timo SCHEIDER | |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 43 | 27.931 | 1:25.074 | 16 |
| 13 | 100 | Martin TOMCZYK | |
BMW Team Schnitzer | BMW M4 DTM | 43 | 31.430 | 1:25.072 | 22 |
| 14 | 6 | Robert WICKENS | |
SILBERPFEIL Energy/UBFS Invest Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 43 | 32.446 | 1:25.094 | 17 |
| 15 | 16 | Timo GLOCK | |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 43 | 34.178 | 1:25.089 | 13 |
| 16 | 27 | Adrien TAMBAY |  |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 43 | 37.429 | 1:24.705 | 24 |
| 17 | 53 | Jamie GREEN | |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 43 | 40.173 | 1:24.845 | 7 |
| 18 | 8 | Christian VIETORIS | |
BWT Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 43 | 40.957 | 1:24.951 | 18 |
| 19 | 88 | Felix ROSENQVIST | |
EURONICS/FREE MEN’S WORLD Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 43 | 45.546 | 1:24.930 | 12 |
| 20 | 13 | António Félix da COSTA |  |
BMW Team Schnitzer | BMW M4 DTM | 43 | 54.822 | 1:25.196 | 21 |
| 21 | 18 | Augusto FARFUS |  |
BMW Team MTEK | BMW M4 DTM | 43 | 1:00.006 | 1:24.908 | 5 |
| 22 | 99 | Mike ROCKENFELLER | |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 43 | 1:00.571 | 1:25.192 | 20 |
| 23 | 84 | Maximilian GÖTZ | |
Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 43 | 1:08.880 | 1:25.382 | 23 |
| R | 3 | Paul di RESTA | |
Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 1 | 42 LAPS | N/A | 15 |