Moscow DTM: Marco Wittmann reclaims points lead with race two win
Marco Wittmann seized back the DTM points lead with a commanding race two win at Moscow Raceway
BMW Team RMG driver Wittmann led from pole and cantered clear of runner-up Tom Blomqvist to claim his second victory of the season, eventually winning by four seconds.
Wittmann was allowed to escape at the start in part thanks to the efforts of Robert Wickens who, promoted to third on the grid after a qualifying crash forced third-place qualifier Maxime Martin to start from the back, pestered Blomqvist at the start of the first stint.
That allowed Wittmann to build a comfortable three-second cushion before the pitstop phase, and after completing a clean stop eked out his advantage until the finish.
Blomqvist recorded his third second-place finish of the season well clear of those behind, with Bruno Spengler and Augusto Farfus completing a BMW 1-2-3-4 after working their way around an ailing Wickens.
Leading Mercedes man Wickens had dropped away slightly from Blomqvist before the pitstop phase, with a slow stop dropping him further back before he began to complain about the driveability of his C63.
Wickens was rapidly caught by the chasing pack, led initially by HWA team-mate Dani Juncadella, and though he was able to put up a fight he was soon picked off by Spengler at Turn 2 on lap 30 after the BMW driver had worked his way around Juncadella.
Spengler raced away from there into a clear third, but Farfus was another man to make it by Wickens before the finish, the Brazilian making the most of an aggressive strategy to emerge in sixth behind Juncadella before jumping the Spaniard and Wickens to claim fourth.
Having taken the lead of the championship a day earlier, Wickens did at least limit the damage with a dogged run to fifth, just holding off Edoardo Mortara for the position at the flag.
Nico Muller grabbed seventh from Adrien Tambay, while Mattias Ekstrom and Lucas Auer completed the points.
Juncadella finished 12th, paying the price for assisting Wickens' cause, while Paul di Resta also dropped out of the points late on after he was handed a drive-through penalty for pushing Timo Glock out of the race.
RESULTS - 40 LAPS:
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Marco Wittmann | RMG | BMW | 1h02m03.216s |
2 | Tom Blomqvist | RBM | BMW | 4.123s |
3 | Bruno Spengler | MTEK | BMW | 18.119s |
4 | Augusto Farfus | MTEK | BMW | 24.650s |
5 | Robert Wickens | HWA | Mercedes | 38.818s |
6 | Edoardo Mortara | Abt | Audi | 38.885s |
7 | Nico Muller | Abt | Audi | 39.158s |
8 | Adrien Tambay | Rosberg | Audi | 41.193s |
9 | Mattias Ekstrom | Abt | Audi | 41.223s |
10 | Lucas Auer | Mucke | Mercedes | 42.138s |
11 | Miguel Molina | Abt | Audi | 42.245s |
12 | Daniel Juncadella | HWA | Mercedes | 42.562s |
13 | Timo Scheider | Phoenix | Audi | 42.641s |
14 | Christian Vietoris | Mucke | Mercedes | 46.076s |
15 | Mike Rockenfeller | Phoenix | Audi | 47.432s |
16 | Maximilian Gotz | HWA | Mercedes | 48.338s |
17 | Maxime Martin | RBM | BMW | 51.310s |
18 | Gary Paffett | ART | Mercedes | 52.078s |
19 | Antonio Felix da Costa | Schnitzer | BMW | 55.563s |
20 | Felix Rosenqvist | ART | Mercedes | 57.979s |
21 | Jamie Green | Rosberg | Audi | 1m01.627s |
22 | Martin Tomczyk | Schnitzer | BMW | 1m04.773s |
23 | Paul Di Resta | HWA | Mercedes | 1m27.467s |
24 | Timo Glock | RMG | BMW | 9 Laps |
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
Pos | Driver | Points |
---|---|---|
1 | Marco Wittmann | 130 |
2 | Robert Wickens | 118 |
3 | Jamie Green | 104 |
4 | Edoardo Mortara | 100 |
5 | Paul Di Resta | 92 |
6 | Tom Blomqvist | 71 |
7 | Maxime Martin | 71 |
8 | Mattias Ekstrom | 70 |
9 | Nico Muller | 68 |
10 | Gary Paffett | 67 |
11 | Timo Glock | 48 |
12 | Lucas Auer | 44 |
13 | Augusto Farfus | 44 |
14 | Bruno Spengler | 43 |
15 | Christian Vietoris | 42 |
16 | Miguel Molina | 26 |
17 | Maximilian Gotz | 16 |
18 | Antonio Felix da Costa | 16 |
19 | Adrien Tambay | 14 |
20 | Martin Tomczyk | 13 |
21 | Mike Rockenfeller | 5 |
22 | Daniel Juncadella | 4 |
23 | Timo Scheider | 3 |
24 | Esteban Ocon | 2 |
25 | Felix Rosenqvist | 1 |
26 | Rene Rast | 0 |
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