The dream of clinching a home victory in the DTM race at the Norisring has not come true again this year. Still, 121,000 spectators saw an impressive performance by the Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline finishing 3rd and fourth.
A sensational race was driven by Mattias Ekström and Edoardo Mortara. After qualifying, the Swede had been relegated from seventh to twelfth place on the grid because, in the opinion of the stewards of the meeting, he had obstructed another driver. Despite the controversial penalty the Audi driver managed to recover from grid position twelve to third place and to drive the fastest race lap in the process as well.
Even more positions – an amazing 14 – were made up by Edoardo Mortara. The Italian advanced from position 20 on the grid to fourth place. With that, Mortara improved to second place in the drivers’ standings.
Adrien Tambay in the Playboy Audi RS 5 DTM was initially another driver of Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline to make it into the top five. A 30-second time penalty following a collision with Pascal Wehrlein subsequently caused the Frenchman to drop to ninth place.
Miguel Molina was classified in 22nd place although, shortly before the end of the race, he had to park his Audi Sport Audi RS 5 DTM in the pits early following contact with a wall.
“It was a gripping race. Mattias and Edo advanced very far from the rear. That was sensational. But Adrien did a superb job as well“, says Team Director Hans-Jürgen Abt. „The strategy with Miguel, unfortunately, didn’t pan out. But we’d discussed it before and wanted to try it. We’re happy with the team result and have good prerequisites for the next race.”
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