BMW’s Timo Glock won a thrilling second DTM race at the Hockenheimring, holding off Mercedes’ Gary Paffett for much of the race as the duo swapped positions lap-after-lap.
Glock, who had started the race from pole position, led for the early laps before making his compulsory pit stop on lap 14.
Once the race had settled down after the pit stop phase, the German emerged as the leader from Paffett, who had made up six places before the pit stop phase of the race, having started from tenth on the grid.
The duo were then embroiled in nearly ten laps of constant battling for position in the closing half of the race, with Glock having the edge due to his lower number of Drag Reduction System (DRS) activations as a result of his early lead.
By lap 31 Paffett had run out of DRS use, whilst Glock still had six more, allowing the BMW driver to hold on to his first victory since Zandvoort last year and also take an early lead in the championship standings.
Paffett lost out to Audi’s Rockenfeller on the last lap of the race due to his lack of DRS at that point, but the Brit was able to secure third and leaves Hockenheim just one point behind Glock in the standings.
BMW rookie Joel Eriksson had looked set for a maiden podium finish, having closed in on the lead battle as the front-runners fought fiercely for the lead, but the Swede was passed by Rockenfeller with four laps to run.
Audi’s Loïc Duval scored his best-ever DTM result with fifth, having started from 12th on the grid, ahead of Mercedes’ Pascal Wehrlein in sixth.
Reigning champion René Rast took seventh, the German having run wide heading onto the Parabolica from fifth with just two laps left to drop behind both Duval and Wehrlein.
BMW’s Bruno Spengler was eighth, despite the Canadian being demoted to the back of the grid after qualifying for having blocked a competitor.
Mercedes’ Paul di Resta, who at one point was battling with Paffett, and BMW’s Augusto Farfus completed the top ten.
Lucas Auer had been running in third in the early stages of the race, but the Austrian was deemed to have made a jump start and had to serve a five-second pit-stop penalty, dropping him to 15th by the chequered flag.
In his last DTM, Swede Mattias Ekström could only finish 16th, having run the longest first stint of any driver to at least lead the field for one last time.
The only retirement of the race was Edoardo Mortara, who stalled his Mercedes at the start and then retired to the pits just two laps later. Spaniard Daniel Juncadella also stalled at the start and finished the race in last position.
Victory for Glock sees him leave the first meeting of the season on 44 points, just one ahead of Paffett and comfortably ahead of third-placed Wehrlein, who has 18 points tied with Rockenfeller.
The next DTM event takes place at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz from 18 – 20 May.
Race result
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 16 | Timo GLOCK |  |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 36 | 58:04.067 | 1:34.858 | 1 |
| 2 | 99 | Mike ROCKENFELLER | |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 36 | 2.078 | 1:34.966 | 9 |
| 3 | 2 | Gary PAFFETT |  |
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport PETRONAS | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 36 | 3.099 | 1:34.069 | 10 |
| 4 | 47 | Joel ERIKSSON |  |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 36 | 3.481 | 1:34.666 | 3 |
| 5 | 28 | Loïc DUVAL |  |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 36 | 3.854 | 1:34.813 | 12 |
| 6 | 94 | Pascal WEHRLEIN | |
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport PETRONAS | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 36 | 4.129 | 1:34.920 | 11 |
| 7 | 33 | René RAST | |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 36 | 4.849 | 1:34.939 | 2 |
| 8 | 7 | Bruno SPENGLER |  |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 36 | 8.862 | 1:34.883 | 19 |
| 9 | 3 | Paul DI RESTA | |
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport REMUS | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 36 | 11.082 | 1:35.004 | 6 |
| 10 | 15 | Augusto FARFUS |  |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 36 | 11.265 | 1:35.056 | 13 |
| 11 | 11 | Marco WITTMANN | |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 36 | 14.59 | 1:35.248 | 8 |
| 12 | 4 | Robin FRIJNS |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 36 | 15.093 | 1:35.052 | 14 |
| 13 | 51 | Nico MÜLLER |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 36 | 17.858 | 1:35.362 | 15 |
| 14 | 25 | Philipp ENG |  |
BMW Team RMR | BMW M4 DTM | 36 | 18.303 | 1:34.830 | 17 |
| 15 | 22 | Lucas AUER | |
SILBERPFEIL Energy Mercedes-AMG Motorsport | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 36 | 22.103 | 1:35.077 | 5 |
| 16 | 5 | Mattias EKSTRÖM | |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 36 | 23.148 | 1:35.114 | 18 |
| 17 | 53 | Jamie GREEN | |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 36 | 23.853 | 1:35.269 | 16 |
| 18 | 23 | Daniel JUNCADELLA |  |
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport REMUS | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 36 | 32.993 | 1:34.926 | 7 |
| R | 48 | Edoardo MORTARA |  |
SILBERPFEIL Energy Mercedes-AMG Motorsport | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 2 | DNF | N/A | 4 |