DTM Moscow: Audi driver Rene Rast triumphs in first race

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.

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