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Red Bull Ring DTM: Audi's Mattias Ekstrom beats Gary Paffett in wet

Audi's Mattias Ekstrom moved into the DTM championship lead with his second victory of the season at the Red Bull Ring

In wet conditions, polesitter Ekstrom led from start to finish, but had to withstand a spirited late charge from Mercedes' Gary Paffett to take his 21st career victory.

As a result of heavy rain in the region, the race start was delayed by nearly 20 minutes, and the opening five laps were run behind the safety car.

When drivers were let loose, Ekstrom set about building a lead over Mike Rockenfeller and Paffett, who executed a bold move around the outside of Turn 4 to take second, four laps in.

By that time, Ekstrom was five seconds clear, but Paffett chipped away at the margin, getting it down to 3.5s when they made their mandatory pitstops on successive laps.

Ekstrom, who pitted a lap later, rebuilt his advantage to six seconds with 20 minutes remaining, before Paffett restarted his run.

Making up most of his time in the second sector, Paffett took an average of half-a-second a lap out of the lead and with five minutes to go it was just 2.1s.

However, Ekstrom found more in reserve, setting a new fastest lap the next time around and he edged the gap back out to 4.3s by the end.

Saturday victor Edoardo Mortara rounded out the podium, leapfrogging Rockenfeller during the pitstop window, and actually running behind Paffett briefly before running wide at Turn 3.

Nico Muller raced from 11th to finish fifth, and at the start of the final lap he was ahead of Robert Wickens, Timo Scheider and Pascal Wehrlein, who had a pair of offs in the early stages.

Wehrlein got past the pair at Turn 2, only for contact from Scheider into the rear of Wickens' C-Coupe to send both Mercedes drivers into the Turn 3 gravel trap.

REACTION: Wehrlein says Audi has started a 'war'

As a result, Wehrlein's time at the top of the championship lasts just 24 hours, and he drops to third with 94 points, behind Ekstrom on 111 and Mortara on 98.

The incident is under investigation, and Scheider crossed the line in sixth place, ahead of Lucas Auer, Maximilian Gotz, Christian Vietoris and Paul di Resta.

The results are Auer's best in the series and Gotz's first DTM points, while Vietoris and di Resta had to regroup after early trips through the gravel.

Audi and Mercedes split the top 10 places, with Antonio Felix da Costa the best BMW in 11th, ahead of Marco Wittmann and Martin Tomczyk, who also made off-track excursions.

Jamie Green, who headed to Spielberg as the championship leader, finished his weekend with 18th, his fifth straight race out of the points.

NEWS UPDATE: Scheider excluded, Audi faces hearing

RESULTS - 34 LAPS:

Pos Driver Team Car Gap
1 Mattias Ekstrom Abt Audi 1h01m47.136s
2 Gary Paffett ART Mercedes 4.334s
3 Edoardo Mortara Abt Audi 23.555s
4 Mike Rockenfeller Phoenix Audi 25.445s
5 Nico Muller Rosberg Audi 29.964s
6 Lucas Auer ART Mercedes 43.726s
7 Maximilian Gotz Mucke Mercedes 44.620s
8 Christian Vietoris HWA Mercedes 1m00.668s
9 Paul Di Resta HWA Mercedes 1m01.506s
10 Antonio Felix da Costa Schnitzer BMW 1m05.663s
11 Marco Wittmann RMG BMW 1m06.995s
12 Martin Tomczyk Schnitzer BMW 1m07.700s
13 Miguel Molina Abt Audi 1m10.505s
14 Timo Glock MTEK BMW 1m11.638s
15 Bruno Spengler MTEK BMW 1m13.669s
16 Adrien Tambay Abt Audi 1m15.250s
17 Jamie Green Rosberg Audi 1m22.362s
18 Augusto Farfus RBM BMW 1m26.870s
19 Maxime Martin RMG BMW 1m40.397s
20 Robert Wickens HWA Mercedes Collision
21 Pascal Wehrlein HWA Mercedes Collision
22 Tom Blomqvist RBM BMW Not running
23 Daniel Juncadella Mucke Mercedes Not running
- Timo Scheider Phoenix Audi Disqualified

CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS:

Pos Driver Points
1 Mattias Ekstrom 111
2 Edoardo Mortara 98
3 Pascal Wehrlein 94
4 Jamie Green 81
5 Gary Paffett 61
6 Robert Wickens 57
7 Christian Vietoris 56
8 Bruno Spengler 52
9 Marco Wittmann 51
10 Antonio Felix da Costa 44
11 Augusto Farfus 43
12 Mike Rockenfeller 41
13 Paul Di Resta 40
14 Maxime Martin 32
15 Miguel Molina 27
16 Timo Glock 25
17 Nico Muller 22
18 Martin Tomczyk 20
19 Timo Scheider 16
20 Daniel Juncadella 14
21 Lucas Auer 10
22 Maximilian Gotz 6
23 Tom Blomqvist 6
24 Adrien Tambay 3


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