DTM Hockenheim: Green into title contention with race one victory
Audi's Jamie Green threw himself firmly into contention for his first DTM crown by winning the first race of the Hockenheim finale
Green, who has been the form man of the late-season races, passed the BMWs of Maxime Martin and Timo Glock in the early stages and from then on his win was never in doubt.
Series leader Mattias Ekstrom failed to add to his points tally in 11th.
With Rene Rast and Mike Rockenfeller finishing sixth and second respectively, it means that the race on Sunday will feature a four-way all-Audi battle for the title, with Green nine points adrift of Ekstrom, Rast 13 behind, and Rockenfeller 20 in arrears, with 28 on the table.
Any title hopes Mercedes had were ended on Saturday, although Lucas Auer fought from a lowly grid position to eighth, while BMW's championship contender Marco Wittmann was outside the points.
Glock made a good start from pole, while Green immediately passed front-row man Martin away from the line to move into second.
Glock was 1.4 seconds in front at the end of the opening lap, but Green chiselled away at the gap and his first bid to take the lead came on lap six of 36.
Green moved to the outside of Glock at the Spitzkehre hairpin, hung on around the outside into the Mercedes Arena, and was on the inside line for the tight second element of the sequence.
But he ran wide, allowing Glock alongside, and the duo made contact on the exit with Glock running extremely wide and sweeping back onto the track still in front.
This incident remains under investigation, so Green may have to sweat on the outcome until a decision is taken.
On the following lap, Green got the move done earlier on the back straight, a few shards of carbon fibre going flying as the Audi swept across to pull out of the BMW's slipstream.
A few laps later, Glock pitted from 3.7s behind Green, who left his own stop until three laps later.
Green also had little trouble clearing the late-stopping BMW of Tom Blomqvist, passing him for the lead into Spitzkehre with nine laps remaining.
Once the stops had shuffled out, Glock was a net second from Martin, Edoardo Mortara (Mercedes), Rast, Robert Wickens (Mercedes) and Rockenfeller.
But Rockenfeller had pitted nine laps later than Green, and was on much fresher tyres than all those ahead as well as having a stack of DRS.
The former champion charged up the order, wresting second from Glock on the last lap by going around the outside at Spitzkehre, and finished 3.9s behind the winning Team Rosberg Audi of Green.
Martin was fourth from Mortara, while Rast fended off a late challenge from Wickens for sixth.
Auer's eighth place was protected by Mercedes team-mate Gary Paffett, as Bruno Spengler muscled his BMW past Ekstrom for the final point in the late stages.
Race one results
Pos | Driver | Car | Laps | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Jamie Green | Audi | 36 | 56m52.478s |
2 | Mike Rockenfeller | Audi | 36 | 3.939s |
3 | Timo Glock | BMW | 36 | 5.666s |
4 | Maxime Martin | BMW | 36 | 10.448s |
5 | Edoardo Mortara | Mercedes | 36 | 12.962s |
6 | Rene Rast | Audi | 36 | 14.752s |
7 | Robert Wickens | Mercedes | 36 | 16.196s |
8 | Lucas Auer | Mercedes | 36 | 23.633s |
9 | Gary Paffett | Mercedes | 36 | 24.615s |
10 | Bruno Spengler | BMW | 36 | 25.027s |
11 | Mattias Ekstrom | Audi | 36 | 25.764s |
12 | Nico Muller | Audi | 36 | 26.371s |
13 | Marco Wittmann | BMW | 36 | 27.426s |
14 | Paul Di Resta | Mercedes | 36 | 29.288s |
15 | Tom Blomqvist | BMW | 36 | 30.867s |
16 | Maro Engel | Mercedes | 36 | 35.288s |
17 | Augusto Farfus | BMW | 36 | 37.358s |
18 | Loic Duval | Audi | 36 | 42.024s |
Drivers' championship
Pos | Driver | Points |
---|---|---|
1 | Mattias Ekstrom | 172 |
2 | Jamie Green | 163 |
3 | Rene Rast | 159 |
4 | Mike Rockenfeller | 152 |
5 | Lucas Auer | 135 |
6 | Marco Wittmann | 134 |
7 | Timo Glock | 133 |
8 | Maxime Martin | 124 |
9 | Robert Wickens | 119 |
10 | Paul Di Resta | 99 |
11 | Gary Paffett | 90 |
12 | Nico Muller | 81 |
13 | Bruno Spengler | 75 |
14 | Edoardo Mortara | 59 |
15 | Maro Engel | 51 |
16 | Augusto Farfus | 29 |
17 | Loic Duval | 22 |
18 | Tom Blomqvist | 22 |
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