The first race of the new Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters season saw Mercedes’ Lucas Auer take a challenging first victory of the year, under the new regulations at Hockenheim ahead of BMW’s Timo Glock.
2013 champion Mike Rockenfeller completed the top three, who fended off a last-minute challenge from Team BWT’s Edoardo Mortara on the last lap.
The latter stages of the race saw Glock and Rockenfeller significantly close on leader Auer, with Glock trying to put the pressure on the Austrian, who would prevail to take his second career win, despite a last-lap lock-up into Spitzkerhe.
Rockenfeller would take his first podium finish since the second race at Moscow Raceway in 2015, where the 2013 champion was on the top step.
Mattias Ekström fought his way back from 17th place to fifth, having employed a late pit strategy to stop on lap 26, with the Abt Sportsline pit crew doing the fastest pit stop of the race (6.9 seconds) to get the Swede back out behind René Rast.
Rast also made his way past Gary Paffett for sixth in the last five minutes, with the Briton having shown a good turn of pace in the early stage having battled Glock. The Suffolk-based driver would eventually have to settle for seventh ahead of Paul Di Resta.
Nico Müller was the third best-placed Audi driver in ninth, as defending champion Marco Wittmann could only finish in tenth, having initially made his way up to seventh place.
The start of the race saw Rast head into pit lane to have a right door issue attended to, whilst Augusto Farfus was unable to make a clean getaway after the lights went out, having stopped on the grid.
The Brazilian eventually finished 13th behind Maxime Martin and Bruno Spengler, as both Mercedes and Audi showed better pace after the round of mandatory pitstops.
Robert Wickens, who qualified tenth, would finish down in 15th ahead of Tom Blomqvist, as the pair came together at turn six on lap three, with the Canadian being one of two drivers receiving a drive-through penalty.
Jamie Green also had to drive through pit lane, having outbraked himself going into turn eight on the very next lap, collecting Maro Engel in the process, spinning the German into the run-off area.
Engel would continue the race, despite damage to the left rear of his Mercedes, finishing 17th ahead of the Briton.
Loïc Duval would also stay out as long as Ekström, as the 2013 FIA WEC champion kept himself out of trouble to take 14th place.
After the first day of DTM action in 2017, Auer continues to lead the drivers’ standings, having taken the maximum amount of points in qualifying and the first race of the season.
The final free practice session gets underway at 1000 CET tomorrow (Sunday, May 7th), lasting for 30 minutes.
Race result
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 22 | Lucas AUER |  |
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport BWT | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 18 | 57:23.598 | 1:33.469 | 1 |
| 2 | 16 | Timo GLOCK |  |
BMW Team RMR | BMW M4 DTM | 18 | 1.942 | 1:33.732 | 4 |
| 3 | 99 | Mike ROCKENFELLER | |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 18 | 3.351 | 1:33.311 | 16 |
| 4 | 48 | Edoardo MORTARA |  |
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport BWT | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 18 | 3.984 | 1:33.752 | 3 |
| 5 | 5 | Mattias EKSTRÖM |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 18 | 4.275 | 1:33.201 | 17 |
| 6 | 33 | René RAST | |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 18 | 5.855 | 1:33.445 | 14 |
| 7 | 2 | Gary PAFFETT |  |
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Mercedes me | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 18 | 6.956 | 1:33.879 | 2 |
| 8 | 3 | Paul DI RESTA | |
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport SILBERPFEIL Energy | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 18 | 13.648 | 1:34.039 | 6 |
| 9 | 51 | Nico MÜLLER |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 18 | 17.510 | 1:34.021 | 8 |
| 10 | 11 | Marco WITTMANN | |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 18 | 19.190 | 1:33.875 | 11 |
| 11 | 36 | Maxime MARTIN |  |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 18 | 20.800 | 1:33.659 | 5 |
| 12 | 7 | Bruno SPENGLER |  |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 18 | 21.504 | 1:34.138 | 13 |
| 13 | 15 | Augusto FARFUS |  |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 18 | 25.351 | 1:34.143 | 15 |
| 14 | 77 | Loïc DUVAL |  |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 18 | 34.343 | 1:34.082 | 18 |
| 15 | 6 | Robert WICKENS | |
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Mercedes me | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 18 | 43.948 | 1:33.571 | 10 |
| 16 | 31 | Tom BLOMQVIST | |
BMW Team RMR | BMW M4 DTM | 18 | 44.956 | 1:34.429 | 9 |
| 17 | 63 | Maro ENGEL | |
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport SILBERPFEIL Energy | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 18 | 51.525 | 1:34.083 | 7 |
| 18 | 53 | Jamie GREEN | |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 18 | 1:02.944 | 1:34.140 | 12 |