With the sunshine beating down on the Hungaroring for the sixth race of the 2017 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters season, Audi Sport Team Rosberg’s René Rast secured his first career DTM victory around the 4.381-km circuit, ahead of Team Abt Sportsline’s Mattias Ekström and Team RBM’s Maxime Martin.
Rast calmly made his way past Ekström with just three laps to go into turn one, whilst Martin made an early strategy call to pit at the end of the first lap to secure his first podium of the season.
As a result, Rast now takes the championship lead with 70 points, ahead of Lucas Auer by just one point, with the Austrian having scored no points throughout the weekend.
Auer parked his C63 AMG Coupé in the garage on lap 24, ending a difficult race weekend, with his mandatory pitstop under investigation by the stewards by going into his pit box too hot, almost running into his pit crew..
Nico Müller and Jamie Green rounded out the top five that saw four Audis in the top five, with 2013 champion Mike Rockenfeller taking the final points-scoring place in 10th, having started from pit lane as a result of a brake fluid leak from his RS5 DTM.
Green made one of the best moves of the race whilst battling Marco Wittmann in the latter stages for position for fifth on lap 28, passing the defending champion around the outside into turn two, after a hard and fair battle between the duo.
Wittmann was the other main casualty aside from Auer, pulling over in his M4 DTM on the last lap of the race, as a plastic bag had lodged itself on the radiator grille. Wittmann had a strong showing all race, running in the top five despite having a slow getaway at the start.
It was another great showing from Paul Di Resta, with the Scot making his way up from 12th on the grid to finish in sixth, 0.810 seconds ahead of the only other BMW of Timo Glock to make it into the top ten.
Stuttgart saw another two of its cars finish in the top ten, with Robert Wickens and Gary Paffett finishing eighth and ninth, ahead of Rockenfeller. Paffett fought his way back past the 2013 champion on the inside of turn two, having complained that Rockenfeller had barged him wide coming out of turn one.
Edoardo Mortara was able to make up three places during the race to finish 11th, ahead of the BMW trio of Augusto Farfus, Tom Blomqvist and Bruno Spengler.
No further action was taken in the incident between Blomqvist and Audi Sport’s Loïc Duval on lap 33, where the Frenchman spun out after contact between the pair into turn two, as he appeared to turn into Blomqvist, who had the racing line.
Duval would be the last of the classified finishers behind Mercedes’ Maro Engel, who again showed good consistent lap times until he was the last to pit on lap 18, but would also have to serve a five-second pit stop penalty for bad grid positioning at the start.
The banks of the Dutzendteich will again host the DTM, as the Norising will be the backdrop for the fourth round of the season in just a fortnight’s time (June 30th – July 2nd), with the top six drivers separated by just 16 points in the standings.
Audi Sport Team Rosberg leads the team championship battle on 135 points, ahead of Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Mercedes me and Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline, who are split by just a single point after six races.
Audi now extends its lead over Mercedes in the manufacturers’ standings to 50 points, as Dieter Gass’ squad now leave Hungary on 284 points. BMW Motorsport still has some work to do, 110 points behind Mercedes.
Race result
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 33 | René RAST |  |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 36 | 58:01.592 | 1:37.430 | 1 |
| 2 | 5 | Mattias EKSTRÖM |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 36 | 1.041 | 1:36.725 | 3 |
| 3 | 36 | Maxime MARTIN |  |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 36 | 1.506 | 1:37.135 | 18 |
| 4 | 51 | Nico MÜLLER |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 36 | 1.861 | 1:37.603 | 4 |
| 5 | 53 | Jamie GREEN |  |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 36 | 5.772 | 1:37.457 | 6 |
| 6 | 3 | Paul DI RESTA | |
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport SILBERPFEIL Energy | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 36 | 7.884 | 1:37.569 | 12 |
| 7 | 16 | Timo GLOCK | |
BMW Team RMR | BMW M4 DTM | 36 | 8.694 | 1:37.541 | 8 |
| 8 | 6 | Robert WICKENS |  |
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Mercedes me | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 36 | 11.999 | 1:37.559 | 13 |
| 9 | 2 | Gary PAFFETT | |
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Mercedes me | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 36 | 12.653 | 1:37.714 | 11 |
| 10 | 99 | Mike ROCKENFELLER | |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 36 | 13.159 | 1:36.943 | 5 |
| 11 | 48 | Edoardo MORTARA |  |
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport BWT | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 36 | 13.63 | 1:37.671 | 14 |
| 12 | 15 | Augusto FARFUS |  |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 36 | 15.087 | 1:37.578 | 9 |
| 13 | 31 | Tom BLOMQVIST | |
BMW Team RMR | BMW M4 DTM | 36 | 16.289 | 1:38.011 | 10 |
| 14 | 7 | Bruno SPENGLER | |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 36 | 17.583 | 1:37.156 | 17 |
| 15 | 63 | Maro ENGEL | |
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport SILBERPFEIL Energy | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 36 | 19.828 | 1:37.493 | 16 |
| 16 | 77 | Loïc DUVAL |  |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 36 | 38.535 | 1:37.679 | 15 |
| 17 | 11 | Marco WITTMANN | |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 34 | 2 LAPS | 1:37.668 | 2 |
| R | 22 | Lucas AUER |  |
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport BWT | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 24 | DNF | 1:37.049 | 7 |