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DTM Moscow: Audi driver Rene Rast triumphs in first race

DTM rookie Rene Rast scored his second win in the series in the opening race at Moscow Raceway, leading stablemate Mike Rockenfeller for an Audi 1-2

Rast led the race from lights to flag, but his win was not straightforward, as Rockenfeller was ever-present in his wheeltracks in the final laps of the event.

At the start of the race, Rockenfeller - nursing a fracture in his left foot - had a look down the inside of Rast for the lead, but backed down from the move.

With Rast soon establishing a small gap, Rockenfeller had to switch focus on the BMW of Augusto Farfus behind him and a second-lap attack by the latter resulted in contact.

Approaching the second corner, Farfus was blocked by Rockenfeller and forced on the grass while attempting to overtake.

The move did briefly get him past the Audi man, but not without contact but subsequently yielded a right-front puncture for Farfus and took him out of contention.

Rockenfeller received a warning, but himself and Rast were now in the clear, the gap between them stood at around a second and a half for much of the opening stint.

With taking the mandatory stop early proving a popular strategy, Rockenfeller and Rast were among the last to pit - on laps 14 and 15 respectively.

While Rast got his tyres up to temperature after pitting, his Audi stablemate closed the gap to under a second but a full-on attack did not materialise and he eventually finished 0.7s back.

Behind the pair, the battle for the final spot on the podium initially looked to be an all-BMW affair, with reigning champion Wittmann moving up to third after Farfus' misfortune.

Fellow BMW man Timo Glock got past Wittmann on lap 11, but the latter went on to pit a lap earlier than the ex-F1 driver and retook position after the stop.

This, however, played into the hands of Mercedes driver Robert Wickens.

The Canadian managed to jump from 12th to fifth early on, having run wide at the start after contact, and then stopped late to rejoin ahead of both Glock and Wittmann.

He kept Glock at bay but had a good fight with Wittmann - who secured third place by getting a good run out of the final corner and picking off Wickens with six minutes left on the clock.

Glock remained fifth ahead of Mercedes duo Lucas Auer and Gary Paffett.

Mattias Ekstrom, who had come into the race leading the championship, was nudged wide by Glock on the opening lap, dropping out of the top 10.

But an early-stop strategy brought him back into the fight for points and he eventually finished seventh.

With the Saturday Moscow race marking the exact halfway point in the championship, Rast has now vaulted back ahead on 99 points, with Auer four and Ekstrom six adrift respectively.

RACE ONE RESULT

Pos Driver Team Car Laps Gap
1 Rene Rast Rosberg Audi 38 57m50.085s
2 Mike Rockenfeller Phoenix Audi 38 0.770s
3 Marco Wittmann RMG BMW 38 3.899s
4 Robert Wickens HWA Mercedes 38 6.098s
5 Timo Glock RMR BMW 38 9.498s
6 Lucas Auer HWA Mercedes 38 14.663s
7 Gary Paffett HWA Mercedes 38 17.696s
8 Mattias Ekstrom Abt Audi 38 17.795s
9 Jamie Green Rosberg Audi 38 24.310s
10 Maro Engel HWA Mercedes 38 25.329s
11 Loic Duval Phoenix Audi 38 25.876s
12 Bruno Spengler RBM BMW 38 27.607s
13 Edoardo Mortara HWA Mercedes 38 29.359s
14 Paul Di Resta HWA Mercedes 38 29.384s
15 Nico Muller Abt Audi 38 29.727s
16 Maxime Martin RBM BMW 38 30.201s
17 Augusto Farfus RMG BMW 34 4 Laps
- Tom Blomqvist RMR BMW 14 Retirement


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