Mortara withstands race-long pressure to seal maiden DTM win at Spielberg

The Rosberg Audi driver started from pole and was only briefly headed during the 47-lap race, eventually beating Tomczyk's RMG BMW by just over a second with HWA Mercedes driver Paffett in third.

Paffett's chance to win came after Mortara's final stop on lap 30. Having stopped for fresh rubber a lap earlier, the British driver was quicker on the run down to the Remus Kurve than Mortara as the Italian exited the pits. As he moved right to pass, Mortara defended, pushing the Mercedes' right wheels onto the grass momentarily, but keeping the advantage.

Tomczyk, third before the stops, exited in the lead when he pitted a lap later, but Mortara's greater momentum out of the first corner carried him past the champion into Remus.

Tomczyk came back at Mortara into the following turn, clipping the rear of the Audi under braking and pushing him wide, but the German's own lost pace meant that instead of pushing for the lead, he was forced to defend second into the next turn from Paffett instead.

That was as close as the battle got, with Mortara winning from Tomczyk and Paffett, who increased his championship lead to 36 points. Mattias Ekstrom's Abt Audi and Jamie Green's HWA Mercedes completed the top five, less than 5s behind the winner.

Timo Scheider put in a tremendous drive to finish sixth. After dropping to the tail of the field after contact with Augusto Farfus put him into the Goldschlosser Kurve gravel trap, the former champion carved through the field to take his best finish of the year.

Phoenix Audi driver Mike Rockenfeller passed Joey Hand's RMG BMW for seventh at the final corner with just three laps left and Mortara's team-mate Filipe Albuquerque also overtook the American seconds later to steal eighth. Hand still scored his first DTM points in ninth while fellow BMW man Farfus completed the top 10.

Title contender Bruno Spengler suffered from poor speed for the first two thirds of the race thanks to damage sustained on a chaotic opening lap. The Schnitzer driver later retired as a result.

Eliminated as a result of a chain reaction that began when Adrien Tambay's Abt Audi was forced onto the grass at Remus on the opening lap were the Frenchman himself, Dirk Werner, Andy Priaulx and Christian Vietoris.

Results - 47 laps:

Pos  Driver              Team/Car              Time/Gap
 1.  Edoardo Mortara     Rosberg Audi      1h12m30.277s
 2.  Martin Tomczyk      RMG BMW               + 1.068s
 3.  Gary Paffett        HWA Mercedes          + 2.142s
 4.  Mattias Ekstrom     Abt Audi              + 2.769s
 5.  Jamie Green         HWA Mercedes          + 5.406s
 6.  Timo Scheider       Abt Audi             + 35.351s
 7.  Mike Rockenfeller   Phoenix Audi         + 37.260s
 8.  Filipe Albuquerque  Rosberg Audi         + 38.062s
 9.  Joey Hand           RMG BMW              + 39.419s
10.  Augusto Farfus      RBM BMW              + 39.904s
11.  Ralf Schumacher     HWA Mercedes         + 43.567s
12.  Roberto Merhi       Persson Mercedes     + 50.339s
13.  Robert Wickens      Mucke Mercedes     + 1m05.670s
14.  Susie Wolff         Persson Mercedes   + 1m06.161s
15.  Rahel Frey          Abt Audi           + 1m06.988s

Retirements:

     Bruno Spengler      Schnitzer BMW          33 laps
     David Coulthard     Mucke Mercedes         22 laps
     Miguel Molina       Phoenix Audi           17 laps
     Andy Priaulx        RBM BMW                  1 lap
     Dirk Werner         Schnitzer BMW            1 lap
     Christian Vietoris  HWA Mercedes            0 laps
     Adrien Tambay       Abt Audi                0 laps