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Pascal Wehrlein wins as Mercedes dominate race one

#94 Pascal Wehrlein, Mercedes-AMG C63 DTMThe first race of the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) weekend at the Norisring saw Mercedes-Benz’s Pascal Wehrlein take his second career victory, leading home a dominant display once again for the Stuttgart manufacturer.

Last year’s race winner Robert Wickens would finish runner-up, just 0.356 seconds behind the current Mercedes AMG Petronas test and reserve driver, who gambled on slick tyres as the rain started to fall before the start.

Gary Paffett completed a clean sweep for Mercedes on the podium, with race one pole sitter Christian Vietoris rounding off a historic 1-2-3-4, as all four drivers were separated by just 1.362 seconds. Early race leader Vietoris had started the race on wet tyres, and was beaten by Wehrlein as he exited the pits after changing to slicks, with his early 30-second race lead not quite proving enough to make a pit stop. 2012 champion Bruno Spengler was the best placed BMW driver in fifth, having fought his way back through the midfield.

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With cars going five wide into turn one on the opening lap, Lucas Auer and Miguel Molina came into contact on the inside of the apex, as did Mattias Ekström and Nico Müller around the outside. Molina would also serve a drive-through penalty for a jump start on lights out.

After a brief Safety Car intervention, the track began to dry out once again, forcing the likes of Paffett, Wickens and Martin Tomcyzk, who finished sixth, to pit around the 15 minute mark.

BMW Motorsport’s Maxime Martin retired on lap five, as did Tom Blomqvist just five laps later, who was a helpless victim of the Auer/Molina incident earlier on.

Jamie Green’s race went from bad to worse, as the current points leader slipped to 11th early on, before contact between himself and Mercedes’ Paul di Resta into the Scholler Esses forced the Scot to retire with right rear suspension damage on lap 17. Green would only be able to recover to seventh, as he finished as the top Audi driver.

Maximilian Götz would retire on the same lap as Di Resta, being the final unclassified driver of the race. Augusto Farfus would finish eighth, ahead of Marco Wittmann and Mercedes’ Daniel Juncadella, who made it five Stuttgart cars in the top ten.

For Audi Sport, it was not a race to remember for the remainder of their squad, as Edoardo Mortara finished 11th and Mike Rockenfeller 14th. With Timo Scheider, Mattias Ekström, Nico Müller, Adrien Tambay and Miguel Molina being the last of the finishers in the race, the Ingolstadt manufacturer has suffered a dent in their lead in the manufacturers’ standings, which now stands at 109 points over Mercedes-Benz.

Qualifying for race two begins on Sunday morning at 11:40 CEST (1040 BST).
Race result

POS NO DRIVER NAT ENTRANT CAR LAPS TIME/GAP BEST GD
1 94 Pascal WEHRLEIN gooix / Original-Teile Mercedes-AMG Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM 46 41:02.170 49.718 5
2 6 Robert WICKENS SILBERPFEIL Energy Mercedes-AMG Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM 46 0.356 49.563 7
3 2 Gary PAFFETT EURONICS / BWT Mercedes-AMG Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM 46 0.742 49.488 2
4 8 Christian VIETORIS gooix / Original-Teile Mercedes-AMG Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM 46 1.362 49.515 1
5 7 Bruno SPENGLER BMW Team MTEK BMW M4 DTM 46 2.784 49.507 13
6 77 Martin TOMCZYK BMW Team Schnitzer BMW M4 DTM 46 4.902 49.333 10
7 53 Jamie GREEN Audi Sport Team Rosberg Audi RS5 DTM 46 5.279 49.297 3
8 18 Augusto FARFUS BMW Team RBM BMW M4 DTM 46 8.572 49.750 6
9 1 Marco WITTMANN BMW Team RMG BMW M4 DTM 46 8.943 49.603 8
10 12 Daniel JUNCADELLA PETRONAS Mercedes-AMG Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM 46 9.262 49.673 11
11 48 Edoardo MORTARA Audi Sport Team Abt Audi RS5 DTM 46 11.482 49.641 16
12 13 António Félix da COSTA BMW Team Schnitzer BMW M4 DTM 46 13.318 49.554 18
13 16 Timo GLOCK BMW Team MTEK BMW M4 DTM 46 15.990 49.566 15
14 99 Mike ROCKENFELLER Audi Sport Team Phoenix Audi RS5 DTM 46 17.695 49.694 22
15 22 Lucas AUER EURONICS / BWT Mercedes-AMG Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM 46 17.935 49.588 12
16 10 Timo SCHEIDER Audi Sport Team Phoenix Audi RS5 DTM 46 20.717 49.698 24
17 5 Mattias EKSTRÖM Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline Audi RS5 DTM 46 21.469 49.787 21
18 51 Nico MÜLLER Audi Sport Team Rosberg Audi RS5 DTM 46 25.638 49.736 19
19 27 Adrien TAMBAY Audi Sport Team Abt Audi RS5 DTM 46 40.423 49.425 23
20 17 Miguel MOLINA Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline Audi RS5 DTM 46 47.794 49.764 9
R 3 Paul di RESTA SILBERPFEIL Energy Mercedes-AMG Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM 17 29 LAPS 53.213 4
R 84 Maximilian GÖTZ PETRONAS Mercedes-AMG Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM 17 29 LAPS 54.353 20
R 31 Tom BLOMQVIST BMW Team RBM BMW M4 DTM 10 36 LAPS 58.501 17
R 36 Maxime MARTIN BMW Team RMG BMW M4 DTM 5 41 LAPS 1:02.902 14

Complete race results

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