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Rockenfeller takes first DTM victory

Mike Rockenfeller took his maiden DTM victory with a fabulous drive in the second round of the championship at Zandvoort

The Abt Audi driver took advantage of a slow getaway by Jamie Green to move into second by the time the pack reached the first corner, and vaulted ahead of early leader Bruno Spengler at the opening round of pitstops.

With a number of different strategies being employed by various teams, it was not until lap 30 when Rockenfeller was handed the lead, but by that stage he had established a 2.5-second lead over Spengler and the Canadian's HWA Mercedes team-mate Green.

Green spent the middle third of the race glued to Spengler's bootlid, but could not keep up with him during the final stint. Spengler therefore finished second and increased his championship lead to eight points over Rockenfeller.

Spengler, in fact, had his hands full defending from Martin Tomczyk during the final few laps as the Phoenix Audi driver finished just 0.4s behind him.

Tomczyk had earlier overtaken Green for third when the Mercedes man ran wide at the Gerlachbocht after running side by side with his rival for two corners.

Timo Scheider finished fifth in his Abt A4, ahead of the excellent Edoardo Mortara, who took his older Rosberg machine to a career-best sixth spot.

Maro Engel drove a superb race, the German especially impressive during the middle stint as he moved up from an early 11th spot to seventh in his Persson Mercedes.

He resisted late pressure from Mattias Ekstrom (Abt), who moved up from his 16th place on the grid by virtue of a novel strategy that included running 15 laps longer than some drivers on his first set of tyres.

Gary Paffett (HWA) was a disappointing ninth after running in the top six early on while Oliver Jarvis (Abt) nabbed 10th from Ralf Schmacher (HWA) at the final round of pitstops.

An entertaining battle between the older Mercedes of Susie Stoddart (Persson) and David Coulthard (Mucke) was ruined when the latter was handed a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pitlane, while Filipe Albuquerque locked up and ran into the gravel at Tarzan on the opening lap, and later retired due to overheating.

Results - 41 laps:

Pos  Driver                Team/Car              Time/Gap
 1.  Mike Rockenfeller     Abt Audi          1h05m28.514s
 2.  Bruno Spengler        HWA Mercedes          + 1.423s
 3.  Martin Tomczyk        Phoenix Audi          + 1.865s
 4.  Jamie Green           HWA Mercedes          + 6.957s
 5.  Timo Scheider         Abt Audi             + 11.478s
 6.  Edoardo Mortara       Rosberg Audi         + 14.160s
 7.  Maro Engel            Mucke Mercedes       + 15.064s
 8.  Mattias Ekstrom       Abt Audi             + 15.439s
 9.  Gary Paffett          HWA Mercedes         + 19.482s
10.  Oliver Jarvis         Abt Audi             + 21.859s
11.  Ralf Schumacher       HWA Mercedes         + 28.435s
12.  Susie Stoddart        Persson Mercedes     + 28.855s
13.  Renger van der Zande  Persson Mercedes     + 35.870s
14.  Miguel Molina         Abt Audi             + 37.268s
15.  Christian Vietoris    Persson Mercedes     + 38.901s
16.  David Coulthard       Mucke Mercedes       + 49.548s
17.  Rahel Frey            Phoenix Audi           + 1 lap

Retirements:

     Filipe Albuquerque    Rosberg Audi           13 laps

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