Timo Glock moved into contention for the overall DTM title with victory in race one at Zandvoort, finishing ahead of BMW stable-mates Marco Wittmann and Maxime Martin to move to within 16 points of the series lead.
Glock got off to a superb start when the race began to move over a second clear of Wittmann in the early stages, who managed to get past front-row start Augusto Farfus at Turn 3 on the opening lap.
Dropping down to the lower part of the top ten after his pit stop on lap eight, Glock held position ahead of his fellow BMW racers in the lead battle and gradually rose back to the front of the field as the strategy of those who stayed out longer did not pay off.
The win is Glock’s first of the season and just the fourth of his career, coming in straightforward circumstances that saw the German use his Drag Reduction System [DRS] just once in the race.
In taking the chequered flag in second defending champion Wittmann scored his best result of the season, finishing ahead of Martin third after the Belgian also got past Farfus on the opening lap of the race.
The leading Audi was Mike Rockenfeller in fourth, who retook the place at the final corner after Jamie Green, who had been let in front to take the challenge to the BMWs, gave the position back after failing to mount a serious challenge.
Behind Green in sixth was Farfus, who lost out to the Audi duo in the pit-stop phase of the race. The Brazilian seemed to lack the pace to keep up with the front-runners, allowing a lead quintet to develop ahead and a chasing battle to emerge behind the RBM BMW driver.
Paul id Resta was the leading Mercedes driver in seventh, ahead of fellow Brit Gary Paffett in eighth, with Paffett having passed Audi’s René Rast with just three laps remaining after a small mistake from the latter.
By finishing in ninth, Rast was the only one of the top three in the championship to score points and he thus moves to one point clear at the top of the table.
Audi’s Nico Müller completed the top ten after acting as a rear guard for Rast in the closing stages of the race.
Erstwhile points leader Mattias Ekström endured a disastrous race, with the Swede running in eighth in the early stages. The Audi driver pitted on lap four, but went off the circuit as soon as he left the pitlane on lap five, running through the gravel at Turn 1 before spinning on his own detritus at Turn 3.
After running much of the race at the tail of the field, Ekström retired to the pits with three laps left to run.
It was also a difficult race for Mercedes’ leading protagonist Lucas Auer, who was never in the top ten throughout and finished in 15th place, having started down in 16th.
Audi’s DTM rookie Loïc Duval ran a late pit-stop strategy in the race, leading late-on. However the Frenchman was on an unfavourable strategy and also picked up a five-second pit-stop penalty for an earlier jump start, going on to finish in 13th place.
Race two takes place at 15:18 CEST (14:18 BST) on Sunday.
Race result
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 16 | Timo GLOCK |  |
BMW Team RMR | BMW M4 DTM | 37 | 57:18.491 | 1:30.726 | 1 |
| 2 | 11 | Marco WITTMANN | |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 37 | 0.178 | 1:30.905 | 3 |
| 3 | 36 | Maxime MARTIN |  |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 37 | 0.840 | 1:30.688 | 4 |
| 4 | 99 | Mike ROCKENFELLER | |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 37 | 2.530 | 1:30.680 | 9 |
| 5 | 53 | Jamie GREEN |  |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 37 | 3.164 | 1:30.280 | 15 |
| 6 | 15 | Augusto FARFUS |  |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 37 | 4.173 | 1:31.132 | 2 |
| 7 | 3 | Paul DI RESTA | |
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport SILBERPFEIL Energy | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 37 | 4.771 | 1:31.135 | 11 |
| 8 | 2 | Gary PAFFETT | |
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Mercedes me | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 37 | 5.382 | 1:31.160 | 8 |
| 9 | 33 | René RAST | |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 37 | 5.911 | 1:30.160 | 5 |
| 10 | 51 | Nico MÜLLER |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 37 | 6.278 | 1:31.117 | 14 |
| 11 | 6 | Robert WICKENS |  |
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Mercedes me | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 37 | 6.734 | 1:30.818 | 12 |
| 12 | 48 | Edoardo MORTARA |  |
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport BWT | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 37 | 7.929 | 1:30.630 | 18 |
| 13 | 77 | Loïc DUVAL |  |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 37 | 13.880 | 1:30.367 | 6 |
| 14 | 7 | Bruno SPENGLER | |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 37 | 21.214 | 1:31.730 | 17 |
| 15 | 22 | Lucas AUER |  |
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport BWT | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 37 | 27.053 | 1:30.985 | 16 |
| 16 | 63 | Maro ENGEL | |
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport SILBERPFEIL Energy | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 37 | 52.140 | 1:31.669 | 13 |
| 17 | 5 | Mattias EKSTRÖM |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 34 | 3 LAPS | 1:31.111 | 10 |
| R | 31 | Tom BLOMQVIST | |
BMW Team RMR | BMW M4 DTM | 17 | DNF | 1:30.637 | 7 |