The Styrian countryside witnessed a masterful drive from Team RMG’s Timo Glock, who took his third DTM career win in Austria, as well as becoming the fourth race winner in as many races at the Red Bull Ring this afternoon.
It was also the first double race win for BMW Motorsport for the season, as well as Stefan Reinhold’s Team RMG, thanks to Marco Wittmann winning the first race in Saturday.
This also saw another fantastic display from Jens Marquardt’s team, who again had six of their cars in the top ten. With the assistance of Augusto Farfus, Maxime Martin, Tom Blomqvist, Wittmann and Bruno Spengler, BMW Motorsport now further extends its lead in the constructors’ standings to 203 points, 95 ahead of Audi Sport, with Mercedes still on 93.
Mattias Ekström made a great comeback drive, having qualified 11th, to finish 2.215 seconds behind the German, with Jamie Green completing the podium.
It was another difficult race for Mercedes with the new C63 AMG DTM, as none of the drivers made it into the top ten, with Daniel Juncadella being the best of the Stuttgart outfit in 11th place. Gary Paffett was a fraction behind, but had to settle for 12th after being pushed wide on the last lap by Timo Scheider.
Paul Di Resta made a very slow getaway from the penultimate row on the grid, as the field surged ahead when the lights went out, as Timo Glock made his way into second ahead of António Félix da Costa and Edoardo Mortara in the first lap.
Glock would then take the lead of the race on the second lap from the Brit, whilst Nico Müller retired after going off at turn 5, which brought out the Safety Car.
There was the slightest of contact between both Müller and Robert Wickens into the corner, with the former going through the gravel before hitting the barriers.
Wickens was attempting to overtake the Swiss ace, where there was the slightest of contact between the pair, as Christian Vietoris went through the pits on lap 4.
The Canadian would receive a drive-through penalty for his actions under the restart, which he served on the very next lap.
After the Safety Car came in, Glock bolted away from Green, opening up a lead of 1.135 seconds, whilst the remainder of the pack closed up. Green was having to battle hard with da Costa and Mortara for second.
But Mortara, Farfus and Martin went past the Portuguese driver for third in rapid succession, as da Costa went wide fighting with Green on lap 8.
By lap 9, Glock had doubled the gap between himself and Green, with Mortara posting the fastest lap of the race in pursuit of the top two.
Lucas Auer was trying to uphold Stuttgart pride on his home track, running in 13th place as the highest running Mercedes driver after 20 minutes.
Ekström was looking for a better result this time around, as the Swede made his way past Rockenfeller for tenth on lap 14. Both Wittmann and Spengler fell into his clutches shortly after.
Timo Scheider, Miguel Molina, Paffett, Paul Di Resta and Martin Tomczyk all opted for a new set of tyres on lap 15, being the first set of drivers to make their mandatory pitstop.
Scheider would be under investigation for crossing the white line on the pit lane exit, but no further action would be taken by Race Control.
Glock responded to the first line of pitstops by pitting a lap later, which released Green and Mortara into the lead of the race, as the Brit quickly stretched out a lead of over two seconds from the Italian.
Mortara would pit from second on lap 19 at the same time as Martin, with a good stop from Team ABT Sportsline putting him ahead of the Belgian. Green would pit the very next lap, as Farfus and Rockenfeller followed him in.
Ekström would inherit the lead of the race ahead of race one winner Marco Wittmann, as four drivers still had to pit as of lap 21.
The battle between Mortara and da Costa came to a bitter end on lap 24, as the pair fought hard over eighth place, before Mortara came into contact with the Portuguese driver’s left rear.
The Italian spun out over the kerbs, before beaching it in the gravel, whilst da Costa continued in 12th place. The incident brought out a Slow Zone in Zone 3, with the incident being reviewed by the stewards.
Ekström would pit from the lead on lap 28, hoping to get the jump on Glock for a fight to the finish, but rejoined the race in P4, closely behind Green.
Tambay rejoined the race after his pitstop on the following lap, but the Frenchman found himself down in 11th place, ahead of a fast approaching Gary Paffett, who set the fastest lap of the race with a 1:24.057.
However, Ekström was on a charge in the latter stages, eclipsing Paffett’s best effort by 0.067 seconds, passing Farfus for third place with 14 minutes remaining.
The two-time champion closed on his Ingolstadt colleague, making the move on the Briton for second place into turn three, but Green kept Ekström close.
After the formality of Glock still leading from the beginning, Ekström would have to settle for the runner-up spot, with Green, Rockenfeller and Scheider bringing welcome points home for Audi, with the Team Rosberg pair finishing 8th and 10th respectively.
Paul Di Resta still keeps his lead in the drivers’ standings on 43 points, having not scored this weekend, but the race for the title has gotten closer, with Mortara, Glock, Martin, Wittmann, Blomqvist and Farfus separated by just eight points.
The Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters now heads to the Lausitzring in a fortnight’s time, for races five and six of the season.
Race result
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME/GAP | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 16 | Timo GLOCK |  |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 42 | 1:01:30.006 | 1:23.895 | 3 |
| 2 | 5 | Mattias EKSTRÖM |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 42 | 2.215 | 1:23.619 | 11 |
| 3 | 53 | Jamie GREEN |  |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 42 | 6.014 | 1:23.953 | 1 |
| 4 | 18 | Augusto FARFUS |  |
BMW Team MTEK | BMW M4 DTM | 42 | 10.399 | 1:24.125 | 6 |
| 5 | 36 | Maxime MARTIN |  |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 42 | 11.012 | 1:24.128 | 4 |
| 6 | 31 | Tom BLOMQVIST | |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 42 | 11.643 | 1:24.226 | 8 |
| 7 | 11 | Marco WITTMANN | |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 42 | 12.242 | 1:23.943 | 10 |
| 8 | 99 | Mike ROCKENFELLER | |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 42 | 14.301 | 1:23.696 | 9 |
| 9 | 7 | Bruno SPENGLER |  |
BMW Team MTEK | BMW M4 DTM | 42 | 16.607 | 1:23.790 | 7 |
| 10 | 10 | Timo SCHEIDER | |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 42 | 20.127 | 1:24.128 | 14 |
| 11 | 27 | Adrien TAMBAY |  |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 42 | 20.937 | 1:24.078 | 12 |
| 12 | 12 | Daniel JUNCADELLA |  |
SILBERPFEIL Energy/UBFS Invest Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 42 | 21.331 | 1:24.003 | 16 |
| 13 | 2 | Gary PAFFETT | |
EURONICS/FREE MEN’S WORLD Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 42 | 21.858 | 1:24.057 | 21 |
| 14 | 17 | Miguel MOLINA | |
Audi Sport Team Abt | Audi RS5 DTM | 42 | 22.178 | 1:23.968 | 19 |
| 15 | 3 | Paul di RESTA | |
Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 42 | 22.537 | 1:23.937 | 22 |
| 16 | 22 | Lucas AUER |  |
BWT Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 42 | 23.344 | 1:23.887 | 17 |
| 17 | 8 | Christian VIETORIS | |
BWT Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 42 | 23.684 | 1:23.939 | 20 |
| 18 | 34 | Esteban OCON | |
EURONICS/FREE MEN’S WORLD Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 42 | 25.286 | 1:23.904 | 24 |
| 19 | 100 | Martin TOMCZYK | |
BMW Team Schnitzer | BMW M4 DTM | 42 | 26.232 | 1:23.873 | 23 |
| 20 | 6 | Robert WICKENS | |
SILBERPFEIL Energy/UBFS Invest Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 42 | 26.565 | 1:23.446 | 15 |
| 21 | 13 | António Félix da COSTA |  |
BMW Team Schnitzer | BMW M4 DTM | 42 | 32.223 | 1:24.273 | 2 |
| 22 | 84 | Maximilian GÖTZ | |
Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 42 | 33.139 | 1:23.913 | 18 |
| R | 48 | Edoardo MORTARA |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 23 | 19 LAPS | 1:24.394 | 5 |
| R | 51 | Nico MÜLLER |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt | Audi RS5 DTM | 1 | 41 LAPS | N/A | 13 |