Red Bull Ring DTM: Audi's Mattias Ekstrom beats Gary Paffett in wet

In wet conditions, polesitter Ekstrom led from start to finish, but had to withstand a spirited late charge from Mercedes' Gary Paffett to take his 21st career victory.

As a result of heavy rain in the region, the race start was delayed by nearly 20 minutes, and the opening five laps were run behind the safety car.

When drivers were let loose, Ekstrom set about building a lead over Mike Rockenfeller and Paffett, who executed a bold move around the outside of Turn 4 to take second, four laps in.

By that time, Ekstrom was five seconds clear, but Paffett chipped away at the margin, getting it down to 3.5s when they made their mandatory pitstops on successive laps.

Ekstrom, who pitted a lap later, rebuilt his advantage to six seconds with 20 minutes remaining, before Paffett restarted his run.

Making up most of his time in the second sector, Paffett took an average of half-a-second a lap out of the lead and with five minutes to go it was just 2.1s.

However, Ekstrom found more in reserve, setting a new fastest lap the next time around and he edged the gap back out to 4.3s by the end.

Saturday victor Edoardo Mortara rounded out the podium, leapfrogging Rockenfeller during the pitstop window, and actually running behind Paffett briefly before running wide at Turn 3.

Nico Muller raced from 11th to finish fifth, and at the start of the final lap he was ahead of Robert Wickens, Timo Scheider and Pascal Wehrlein, who had a pair of offs in the early stages.

Wehrlein got past the pair at Turn 2, only for contact from Scheider into the rear of Wickens' C-Coupe to send both Mercedes drivers into the Turn 3 gravel trap.

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As a result, Wehrlein's time at the top of the championship lasts just 24 hours, and he drops to third with 94 points, behind Ekstrom on 111 and Mortara on 98.

The incident is under investigation, and Scheider crossed the line in sixth place, ahead of Lucas Auer, Maximilian Gotz, Christian Vietoris and Paul di Resta.

The results are Auer's best in the series and Gotz's first DTM points, while Vietoris and di Resta had to regroup after early trips through the gravel.

Audi and Mercedes split the top 10 places, with Antonio Felix da Costa the best BMW in 11th, ahead of Marco Wittmann and Martin Tomczyk, who also made off-track excursions.

Jamie Green, who headed to Spielberg as the championship leader, finished his weekend with 18th, his fifth straight race out of the points.

RESULTS - 34 LAPS:

CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS: