Spielberg DTM: Bruno Spengler takes win and points lead
Bruno Spengler took his first DTM victory of the season at Spielberg on Sunday to move into the championship lead
The Canadian controlled the race from pole position, only losing the lead briefly during the pitstop cycles and heading a clean sweep of the podium for BMW.
By the midway point of the race it looked like ex-Formula 1 racer Timo Glock was on course for a sensational victory on only his third DTM start.
The MTEK BMW driver took option tyres as the pit window opened on lap four and completed a 29-lap stint on the softer rubber to haul himself up from 11th place to second - and only one second behind Spengler - with the first round of stops done.
But a delay fitting his front-left wheel at his second stop not only lost him more than a second to Schnitzer driver Spengler, but also dropped him behind his MTEK team-mate Marco Wittmann, who had run inside the top three for most of the race.
All the racing action as it happens on AUTOSPORT Race Centre Live
Wittmann finished just 1.5s behind Spengler after a sensational drive for the series rookie, with Glock behind.
Mike Rockenfeller and Mattias Ekstrom proved the pace of the Audi on standard rubber as both ran long final stints to gain track position and finish fourth and fifth.
Rockenfeller, who lost the championship lead to Spengler, spent a large part of the race battling with the Candian's team-mate Dirk Werner, but showed stronger pace following the final stops.
Ekstrom, meanwhile, grabbed fifth with two laps to go after snagging the rear of Augusto Farfus's RBM BMW at Turn 5 and sending the Brazilian off-line.
Farfus was followed home by Christian Vietoris, who was the best of the Mercedes drivers in seventh for HWA, Werner and Gary Paffett.
Like Spengler, Mercedes drivers Paffett and Pascal Wehrlein ran long first stints on option rubber, but could not match the pace of the BMWs.
HWA driver Paffett was given a two-second pitstop penalty for elbowing Martin Tomczyk off the circuit while overtaking him at Turn 3 early on, while shortly afterwards his team-mate Roberto Merhi spun the RMG BMW around exiting Turn 2 and was given a 10s stop/go penalty for his troubles.
Edoardo Mortara grabbed second at the start, and despite losing out to Wittmann early on, still looked set for a podium until he and the German banged wheels shortly after the latter's final stop, damaging the Rosberg Audi and leaving Mortara unable to do better than 15th.
Daniel Juncadella and Jamie Green came together on the second lap, the Mercedes driver spinning as a result, while Joey Hand's race ended when a front-left wheel fell off his RBM BMW shortly after his first stop.
Results - 47 laps: Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Bruno Spengler Schnitzer BMW 1h08m35.249s 2. Marco Wittmann MTEK BMW + 1.550s 3. Timo Glock MTEK BMW + 6.504s 4. Mike Rockenfeller Phoenix Audi + 9.183s 5. Mattias Ekstrom Abt Audi + 10.260s 6. Augusto Farfus RBM BMW + 14.299s 7. Christian Vietoris HWA Mercedes + 14.884s 8. Dirk Werner Schnitzer BMW + 15.548s 9. Gary Paffett HWA Mercedes + 16.207s 10. Pascal Wehrlein Mucke Mercedes + 17.462s 11. Adrien Tambay Abt Audi + 21.550s 12. Robert Wickens HWA Mercedes + 26.499s 13. Daniel Juncadella Mucke Mercedes + 26.927s 14. Miguel Molina Phoenix Audi + 27.704s 15. Edoardo Mortara Rosberg Audi + 29.113s 16. Timo Scheider Abt Audi + 29.470s 17. Filipe Albuquerque Rosberg Audi + 31.834s 18. Jamie Green Abt Audi + 32.854s 19. Andy Priaulx RMG BMW + 1m10.907s 20. Roberto Merhi HWA Mercedes + 1m19.828s Retirements: Martin Tomczyk RMG BMW 29 laps Joey Hand RBM BMW 9 laps
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments