DTM Hungaroring: Edoardo Mortara closes on points lead with win

Having claimed his first pole of the season earlier on Saturday, Mortara led from lights to flag at the Hungaroring to reduce his deficit to points leader Marco Wittmann, eventually winning by 1.090 seconds ahead of Jamie Green.

Any thoughts of Mortara losing his lead were quickly dispelled as the Italian made a stunning start away from the grid, as Green protected his second place from fellow Audi driver Miguel Molina.

Green, fourth in the championship, stayed with the leader for the majority of the race to prove he had the pace to challenge for victory, but never looked like attacking Audi's lead title hope and eased off in the final laps.

That allowed Mortara to stroke his RS5 home in the final laps to claim his sixth victory in the DTM since joining the grid in 2011.

Abt driver Molina clinched third with a comfortable enough margin over Mike Rockenfeller, who secured his best result of 2016 by some distance in fourth.

Nico Muller repassed Adrien Tambay for fifth in one of the race's few significant overtakes after the start, with Tambay rounding out an Audi top six as the marque's drivers made the most of a significant weight break compared to Mercedes and BMW.

Championship leader Wittmann did a fine job of damage limitation, bringing his Team RMG BMW M4 best of the non-Audis in seventh.

Wittmann made the most of a strong getaway to jump up ahead of Audi drivers Timo Scheider and Mattias Ekstrom and Mercedes' Felix Rosenqvist, and held station thereafter to pick up six points from 10th on the grid.

The German did however have his lead cut from 33 points to 14, with Sunday's second Hungaroring race and the two season-ending affairs at the Hockenheim to come.

Fresh from the announcement that he would complete the season with the ART Mercedes team, Rosenqvist claimed his best finish since replacing F1-bound Esteban Ocon at Moscow Raceway with eighth, ahead of Scheider.

Like Wittmann, Mercedes' title hopeful Robert Wickens made the most of a fast start to haul himself into the points in 10th, advancing from 17th on the grid.

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