DTM: Mortara wins first race at Spielberg

August 1, 2015 • Event Reports • Alexander S

Audi driver Edoardo Mortara had a pole position at Spielberg and claimed his first win in the DTM 2015 season.

Audi has returned to the winning path after four quite poor races. Ingolstadters had a chance for some more success but championship leader Jamie Green failed to score a point and lost overall standings lead as Wehrlein, Ekstrom and Mortara moved ahead of British driver.

Jamie Green started perfectly and immediately took the lead from Edoardo Mortara, while Christian Vietoris overtook Augusto Farfus to take fifth place. But, something went wrong with Green’s Audi and championship leader had to retire after just one lap.

After five laps Mortara was on the top, chased by three Mercedes’ – Wehrlein, Paul Di Resta and Vietoris. Farfus was fifth, but another BMW drivers managed to move up to top 10 as Marco Wittmann was eighth, just behind Mattias Ekstrom who looked resolute to move up after he has started from ninth position.

Next who had to retire was Robert Wickens and soon he was followed by Martin Tomczyk who also had mechanical problems. Mortara strenghtened his lead and had more than three seconds advantage with 15 minutes to go. Di Resta and Vietoris were behind them, while Farfus had to fight with Ekstrom to keep fifth place.

Last third of the race wasn’t so interesting as gaps on top were too big. Mortara kept first place and claimed first victory in the season beating Wehrlein by 1.7 seconds. Di Resta finished third with a gap of 11 seconds, while fourth place won Christian Vietoris.

Mattias Ekstrom was fifth after passing over Farfus’ BMW in the last lap. Gary Paffet finished seventh, eighth was Mike Rockenfeller, reigning champion Marco Wittmann was ninth, while the last point was won by Adrien Tambay.