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DTM Nurburgring: Wickens wins gripping second race from di Resta

Robert Wickens beat Mercedes team-mate Paul di Resta to victory in a gripping second DTM race of the weekend at the Nurburgring

Wickens and di Resta spent most of the race embroiled in battle with leading BMW man Marco Wittmann, once Mercedes' leading title contender Lucas Auer had spun out of contention early on.

After taking the lead off the line of the run to Turn 1 at the start, di Resta opened up a couple of seconds' margin on polesitter Wittmann in the early laps, with Auer running third until he appeared to take too much kerb on lap six of 40 at Turn 4, and spun down the field.

But Wittmann soon began slashing into di Resta's margin, and on the 15th lap the two-time champion passed the Scot with an incisive move at Turn 1.

Two laps later they pitted together, and di Resta seemed to lose a small amount of time to his BMW rival.

Wittmann was powerless on cold tyres to fend off Wickens, who had been running third after Auer's spin and had pitted three laps earlier than the leading duo.

But once he'd settled down Wittmann came back at Wickens, and two-thirds of the way through the race he made a very late dive down the inside of the Canadian at Turn 1.

The duo bumped together mid-corner, before Wickens claimed the inside line for Turn 2, staying ahead, and from then on he was able to pull away little by little.

Wittmann seemed to lack pace as the stint wore on, and di Resta drafted past him with six laps remaining exiting the kink behind the paddock.

The gap was four seconds to Wickens, but di Resta homed in and they were right together with a lap to go, with Wickens just holding on at the flag.

Late-stopping BMW driver Bruno Spengler also caught Wittmann but, with no threat from behind, he played a dutiful back-up role to his title-contending stablemate, who completed the podium.

Maro Engel had a strong run for fifth, while Mattias Ekstrom unexpectedly found himself with extending his points lead after finishing sixth.

With the Audis clobbered with success ballast this weekend, Ekstrom qualified 13th, but both he and stablemate Jamie Green had good pace with a long first stint and made late stops.

Green passed Ekstrom when the Swede made light contact with Augusto Farfus's BMW with six laps to go, but Ekstrom got back past on the penultimate lap and now leads Auer by nine points in the standings.

BMW's Timo Glock, Farfus and Tom Blomqvist completed the points scorers, with Gary Paffett in their midst until he was punted into a spin at the chicane on the last lap by Maxime Martin.

The other main title contender, Rene Rast, started from the back due to a grid penalty.

He pitted on the first lap, lost loads of time in the pits and could only beat the recovering Auer to 12th.

Race two results

Pos Driver Car Laps Gap
1 Robert Wickens Mercedes 40 56m49.795s
2 Paul Di Resta Mercedes 40 0.362s
3 Marco Wittmann BMW 40 7.589s
4 Bruno Spengler BMW 40 7.955s
5 Maro Engel Mercedes 40 15.995s
6 Mattias Ekstrom Audi 40 20.549s
7 Jamie Green Audi 40 22.887s
8 Timo Glock BMW 40 40.196s
9 Augusto Farfus BMW 40 40.307s
10 Tom Blomqvist BMW 40 41.818s
11 Maxime Martin BMW 40 42.033s
12 Rene Rast Audi 40 43.624s
13 Lucas Auer Mercedes 40 47.351s
14 Gary Paffett Mercedes 40 48.758s
15 Loic Duval Audi 40 59.428s
16 Edoardo Mortara Mercedes 40 1m19.821s
17 Mike Rockenfeller Audi 40 1m27.978s
- Nico Muller Audi 29 Retirement

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