Audi’s Robin Frijns claimed his second DTM victory of the season in the opening race at the Nürburgring Sprint circuit, in a race which featured three safety car interventions.
Frijns had started the race from the front row of the grid alongside pole-sitter René Rast, and the Dutchman got thed jump on the reigning champion when the lights went out, as championship leader Nico Müller slipped from third to fourth on the first lap.
There would be just two laps of racing, however, before a first safety car period was required, when Audi’s Loïc Duval made contact with BMW’s Timo Glock at the final corner, leaving debris on the circuit.
After two laps behind the safety car, racing restarted on lap five with an Indianapolis-style side-by-side restart.
Almost immediately there was further drama, as Müller saw himself squeezed between BMW’s Jonathan Aberdein and Marco Wittmann, before then being turned around by Jamie Green.
Dropped to the back of the pack, Müller made an early pit stop on lap eight, which proved to be the right call as a second safety car period was required was called for on lap 17 when Duval went off into the barriers at Turn 5.
This immediately prompted the leading seven drivers who had yet to make their mandatory pit stops to come in, with Frijns at the time leading Rast and Wittmann, whilst Müller had made his way up to ninth.
At the restart on lap 19 Wittmann managed to go around the outside of Rast at Turn 2 to take second, whilst Müller fought his way up to fifth, making further progress to limit the damage to his points lead.
Robert Kubica, meanwhile, picked up a drive-through penalty for a violation of the safety car restart procedure, with the Pole running in 14th at the time.
Just two laps of racing followed, before WRT’s Fabio Scherer, BMW’s Lucas Auer and Audi’s Duval went three-wide into Turn 2. Scherer made contact with Auer and was turned into Duval, a lap down after his earlier off, forcing both the Swiss and the Frenchman out of the race with damage.
Another safety car intervention followed to clear the cars and debris off the circuit, with racing resuming on lap 26. Green took advantage of the situation to pit for a second time just before the safety car came out, dropping the Brit to the back.
Frijns again made a strong restart, whilst behind him Rast moved past Wittmann for second at the first turn.
Thereafter Rast sought to keep pace with Frijns for a chance for the lead, but the German was unable to get close enough to Frijns, leaving the Abt Sportsline driver to score his second consecutive win ahead of Rast.
Wittmann held on to complete the podium ahead of stable-mate Philipp Eng, with Müller taking the chequered flag in fifth.
Frijns win, coupled with Müller’s fifth, means the championship advantage between the two has been cut to 13 points, with Rast 36 points adrift of Müller.
BMW’s Aberdein took sixth, ahead of WRT Audi’s Ferdinand von Habsburg in seventh.
Sheldon van der Linde brought his BMW home in eighth, whilst the top ten was completed by Audi’s Mike Rockenfeller and BMW’s Timo Glock.
The latter two had a late-race scrap for the final points, something which also resulted in Green’s retirement.
Having passed Glock for ninth on lap 29 at Turn 2, Green was adjudged to have forced Glock off the circuit and, when two seconds in front, ordered to swap positions with the German.
Green obliged, dropping back, but clearly had more pace and almost immediately re-passed Glock at Turn 4.
However, there was contact between the two, reportedly breaking Green’s suspension, and he went straight on at Turn 5 and out of the race.
Race two takes place at 13:30 CEST (12:30 BST) on Sunday.
Race result
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 4 | Robin FRIJNS |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 39 | 59:51.551 | 1:22.303 | 2 |
| 2 | 33 | René RAST |  |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 39 | 0.660 | 1:22.318 | 1 |
| 3 | 11 | Marco WITTMANN | |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 39 | 1.573 | 1:22.388 | 6 |
| 4 | 25 | Philipp ENG |  |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 39 | 2.984 | 1:22.333 | 4 |
| 5 | 51 | Nico MÜLLER |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 39 | 4.743 | 1:21.785 | 3 |
| 6 | 27 | Jonathan ABERDEIN |  |
BMW Team RMR | BMW M4 DTM | 39 | 5.211 | 1:22.588 | 5 |
| 7 | 62 | Ferdinand VON HABSBURG | |
Audi Sport Team WRT | Audi RS5 DTM | 39 | 8.513 | 1:22.959 | 7 |
| 8 | 31 | Sheldon VAN DER LINDE | |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 39 | 8.846 | 1:22.511 | 11 |
| 9 | 99 | Mike ROCKENFELLER | |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 39 | 14.970 | 1:22.721 | 12 |
| 10 | 16 | Timo GLOCK | |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 39 | 17.292 | 1:22.866 | 10 |
| 11 | 10 | Harrison NEWEY |  |
Audi Sport Team WRT | Audi RS5 DTM | 39 | 17.900 | 1:23.151 | 16 |
| 12 | 22 | Lucas AUER | |
BMW Team RMR | BMW M4 DTM | 39 | 19.353 | 1:22.772 | 15 |
| 13 | 8 | Robert KUBICA |  |
BMW Team ART | Audi RS5 DTM | 39 | 37.027 | 1:22.490 | 14 |
| 14 | 53 | Jamie GREEN | |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 33 | + 6 LAPS | 1:22.524 | 8 |
| R | 13 | Fabio SCHERER | |
Audi Sport Team WRT | Audi RS5 DTM | 20 | DNF | 1:22.881 | 9 |
| R | 28 | Loïc DUVAL |  |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 19 | DNF | 1:22.202 | 13 |
