Gary Paffett was able to keep at bay a determined Marco Wittmann to make it a clean sweep of race wins for Mercedes at EuroSpeedway Lausitz in the second race of the weekend.
The Briton was able to manage the gap to the two-time champion from BMW, taking his second win of the year by 1.427 seconds at the finish, as Wittmann was able to close the gap in the latter stages.
Pascal Wehrlein also helped with Mercedes’ overall points haul for the weekend, with the 2015 champion finishing a further seven seconds adrift to end up on the podium for the first time since his return.
The 2015 champion finished ahead of Paul Di Resta, who made it three from Stuttgart in the top four, with BMW’s Timo Glock completing the top five.
Glock’s determination to fight his way past was clearly shown, as the BMW driver was able to get past the likes of Edoardo Mortara, Jamie Green and pole sitter Philipp Eng to still lead by only one point after the weekend.
Green had his best finish of the season so far in sixth behind Glock, as the Briton started down in 16th position, but opted for a risky strategy that saw him pit on the opening lap of the race.
Eng would take another welcome top ten finish after battling with the likes of Paffett, Wehrlein and Glock, but the Austrian would complete his weekend in seventh, ahead of Mike Rockenfeller and Joel Eriksson.
Audi’s Robin Frijns secured his first point of the year down in tenth, having his fair share of battles with Augusto Farfus, Nico Müller and Loïc Duval towards the end of the race.
Edoardo Mortara had a race to forget, as the Italian was twice ordered by race control to hand the position back to Eriksson, which put him out of contention for another strong result. He would finish 11th, ahead of Stuttgart stablemate Danil Juncadella.
Duval ended up in 13th place, ahead of Lucas Auer, who provided some exciting overtaking around the outside of Glock and Eriksson on Lap 11 to take sixth in the initial phase of the race.
Both Bruno Spengler and Augusto Farfus would finish way down the order in 15th and 16th respectively, whilst Nico Müller would complete the finishing order, with the Swiss driver to now be the only competitor to have not scored any points this season so far.
The DTM now heads over to Budapest in two weeks’ time, as the Hungaroring hosts the third race weekend of the 2018 season, with Glock on 72 points, one ahead of Paffett, with Wehrlein in third on 39 points.
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Petronas continue to lead the team standings on 110 points, 12 ahead of BMW Team RMR.
Mercedes still sit atop the standings for the the constructors’ title battle, as they have a lead of 48 points over BMW, with Audi having only scored a total of 52 points thus far.
Race result
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 2 | Gary PAFFETT |  |
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport PETRONAS | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 34 | 57:27.909 | 1:39.752 | 3 |
| 2 | 11 | Marco WITTMANN |  |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 34 | 1.427 | 1:39.395 | 4 |
| 3 | 94 | Pascal WEHRLEIN | |
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport PETRONAS | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 34 | 8.602 | 1:39.794 | 2 |
| 4 | 3 | Paul DI RESTA | |
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport REMUS | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 34 | 17.891 | 1:39.816 | 15 |
| 5 | 16 | Timo GLOCK | |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 34 | 19.061 | 1:39.857 | 10 |
| 6 | 53 | Jamie GREEN | |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 34 | 23.243 | 1:40.139 | 16 |
| 7 | 25 | Philipp ENG |  |
BMW Team RMR | BMW M4 DTM | 34 | 24.292 | 1:39.882 | 1 |
| 8 | 99 | Mike ROCKENFELLER | |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 34 | 24.631 | 1:39.863 | 5 |
| 9 | 47 | Joel ERIKSSON |  |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 34 | 27.05 | 1:40.278 | 7 |
| 10 | 4 | Robin FRIJNS |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 34 | 30.992 | 1:40.059 | 14 |
| 11 | 48 | Edoardo MORTARA |  |
SILBERPFEIL Energy Mercedes-AMG Motorsport | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 34 | 32.458 | 1:40.154 | 6 |
| 12 | 23 | Daniel JUNCADELLA |  |
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport REMUS | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 34 | 32.803 | 1:39.597 | 9 |
| 13 | 28 | Loïc DUVAL |  |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 34 | 33.304 | 1:39.523 | 17 |
| 14 | 22 | Lucas AUER | |
SILBERPFEIL Energy Mercedes-AMG Motorsport | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 34 | 38.266 | 1:40.459 | 8 |
| 15 | 7 | Bruno SPENGLER |  |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 34 | 38.526 | 1:40.106 | 11 |
| 16 | 15 | Augusto FARFUS |  |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 34 | 40.55 | 1:40.059 | 12 |
| 17 | 51 | Nico MÜLLER |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 34 | 41.673 | 1:40.238 | 13 |
| NS | 33 | René RAST | |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | – | DNS | N/A | – |