In what was arguably the most thrilling race of the year Mattias Ekström kept a cool head and gave Audi its first victory of the DTM season at Zandvoort. For the Swede, this marked an amazing fourth triumph at Zandvoort.
Ekström in the Red Bull Audi RS 5 DTM started from position eight on standard tires and had the perfect strategy for the turbulent race that saw a total of four safety car periods. After changing to option tires, the Swede, within the space of just nine laps, managed to battle his way forward from position 15, overtake the BMW of Marco Wittmann, and ultimately cross the finish line as the commanding winner with an advantage of 7.414 seconds.
For Audi, this marked the 66th victory in total in a DTM race, for Ekström and Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline it was the first win since Valencia in October 2011. “A victory is always very special,” said Mattias Ekström. “But this victory is also a very special one because the last one was such a long time ago – for me, as well as for Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline. We had to wait for it for a long time, so now our joy of taking home the biggest trophy is even greater. We had a lot of misfortune in recent months. Today, we had the necessary fortune. It was important that I didn’t lose too much time in the beginning on standard tires. Afterwards, the safety cars played into our hands – and my car was very fast today.”
In fourth place, Edoardo Mortara in the Audi Sport Audi RS 5 DTM completed the successful day for Audi. The Italian had to tackle the race from the rear of the starting grid due to a violation of the rules in qualifying, recovered position by position in the beginning on option tires, and in the end successfully defended his position.
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