Mattias Ekström takes victory in rain-soaked race two

Audi Sport capped off a dominant start to the 2015 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters season, as Sweden’s Mattias Ekström took his first win of the year, ahead of stable mate Edoardo Mortara and Mercedes-Benz’s Gary Paffett.

Ekström’s win in the changing conditions now ties the Swede with Paffett for the most wins by an active DTM driver. He took the lead from the start, pulling out a gap before the rain came down as drizzle on around lap 11, which intensified and forced all to switch to wet tyres.

Mortara made the call to his engineer to pit early for wets, as the dark clouds had gathered quicker than anticipated. The Italian pitted on lap 13 and led the field, once all the stops had been made.

However, Ekström would take back the lead after pitting a lap latter, which saw the Team Abt Sportsline driver cruise to a 7.361 seconds lead when the flag dropped after 60 minutes of racing had elapsed.

Paffett was clearly on a charge throughout the race, as he had to pass his aggressor from yesterday, Martin Tomczyk for third place. Tomczyk was the highest placed BMW driver, finishing ahead of Marco Wittmann, who made some great passes to take the lead early on, but fell back down the order.

Pole sitter Mike Rockenfeller took a hard fought sixth, fending off Robert Wickens, who retired in the early dramas of yesterday’s chaotic race. Pascal Wehrlein made it three Mercedes cars in the top ten with eighth, with Bruno Spengler and Timo Glock taking the final point of the afternoon.

Christian Vietoris finished nearly three seconds outside the points, having spun Timo Scheider in the latter stages, who finished in 12^th. Jamie Green came back into the top ten during the first part of the race, but fell back down to finish 13^th, ahead of Maxime Martin and Daniel Juncadella.

Martin was the first driver to be given a drive through penalty, as he almost came together with Tom Blomqvist during the hive of activity during the pit stop phase of the race.

Maximillian Götz finished in 16^th as top rookie, ahead of Team RBM’s Tom Blomqvist. Audi’s Miguel Molina started fifth, but plummeted down the order, finishing in front of Team Rosberg’s Nico Müller, who was hit with a drive through penalty after colliding with Paul Di Resta in the latter stages.

António Félix da Costa and Augusto Farfus completed the race ahead of Di Resta, with the latter having a disastrous race in comparison with a third place finish yesterday.

Mortara now leads the drivers’ standings with 30 points, five ahead of Mattias Ekström and Jamie Green, as the DTM now heads to Lausitzring for the second round in the final weekend of May.

Top ten result

POS	NO	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME/GAP	BEST	GD
1	5	Mattias EKSTRÖM		Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline	Audi RS5 DTM	35	1:02:43.856	1:35.810	2
2	48	Edoardo MORTARA		Audi Sport Team Abt	Audi RS5 DTM	35	7.361	1:35.923	4
3	2	Gary PAFFETT		EURONICS / BWT Mercedes-AMG	DTM Mercedes AMG C-Coupé	35	8.171	1:36.092	22
4	77	Martin TOMCZYK		BMW Team Schnitzer	BMW M4 DTM	35	18.785	1:35.917	6
5	1	Marco WITTMANN		BMW Team RMG	BMW M4 DTM	35	28.929	1:35.983	3
6	99	Mike ROCKENFELLER		Audi Sport Team Phoenix	Audi RS5 DTM	35	29.819	1:35.939	1
7	6	Robert WICKENS		SILBERPFEIL Energy Mercedes-AMG	DTM Mercedes AMG C-Coupé	35	30.678	1:36.185	9
8	94	Pascal WEHRLEIN		gooix / Original-Teile Mercedes-AMG	DTM Mercedes AMG C-Coupé	35	34.085	1:36.429	15
9	7	Bruno SPENGLER		BMW Team MTEK	BMW M4 DTM	35	38.929	1:36.053	12
10	16	Timo GLOCK		BMW Team MTEK	BMW M4 DTM	35	39.812	1:36.392	14
11	8	Christian VIETORIS		gooix / Original-Teile Mercedes-AMG	DTM Mercedes AMG C-Coupé	35	42.63	1:36.377	19
12	10	Timo SCHEIDER		Audi Sport Team Phoenix	Audi RS5 DTM	35	46.18	1:35.766	11
13	53	Jamie GREEN		Audi Sport Team Rosberg	Audi RS5 DTM	35	48.527	1:36.283	17
14	36	Maxime MARTIN		BMW Team RMG	BMW M4 DTM	35	49.838	1:36.548	8
15	12	Daniel JUNCADELLA		PETRONAS Mercedes-AMG	DTM Mercedes AMG C-Coupé	35	50.379	1:36.170	20
16	84	Maximilian GÖTZ		PETRONAS Mercedes-AMG	DTM Mercedes AMG C-Coupé	35	53.207	1:36.706	18
17	31	Tom BLOMQVIST		BMW Team RBM	BMW M4 DTM	35	+1:06.932	1:35.980	21
18	17	Miguel MOLINA		Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline	Audi RS5 DTM	35	+1:11.439	1:36.211	5
19	51	Nico MÜLLER		Audi Sport Team Rosberg	Audi RS5 DTM	35	+1:12.182	1:36.292	13
20	13	António Félix da COSTA		BMW Team Schnitzer	BMW M4 DTM	35	+1:21.578	1:36.389	7
21	18	Augusto FARFUS		BMW Team RBM	BMW M4 DTM	35	+1:24.372	1:36.471	16
22	3	Paul di RESTA		SILBERPFEIL Energy Mercedes-AMG	DTM Mercedes AMG C-Coupé	35	+1:34.157	1:36.492	10
R	27	Adrien TAMBAY		Audi Sport Team Abt	Audi RS5 DTM	0	DNF	1:36.778	23
R	22	Lucas AUER		EURONICS / BWT Mercedes-AMG	DTM Mercedes AMG C-Coupé	0	DNF	N/A	24

Complete race results