 defending champion Marco Wittmann led a historic 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 for BMW in this afternoon's race at Zandvoort.){kind=link}
Team RMG’s Marco Wittmann took his first win of the 2015 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) season at Circuit Park Zandvoort this afternoon, leading a dominant display from BMW Motorsport.
This afternoon’s race saw BMW make history, as seven of their cars finished line astern from winner Wittmann, with Martin Tomczyk the only BMW driver to not finish the race.
The 2011 champion retired on lap 8 with a braking issue, with smoke heavily coming from the front wheels on his M4 DTM.
Wittmann took the lead from the very first corner, finishing ahead of Team Schnitzer’s António Félix da Costa and Team RMG team mate, Maxime Martin.
However, the Safety Car was deployed, due to contact between Paul Di Resta and Robert Wickens, which would see the Scot retire on the very first lap. Wickens’ C63 AMG DTM would carry on until the Canadian pulled the car into the pits to retire on lap 15.
The defending champion had to fight off a heavy attack in the last few laps of the race from Da Costa, to take his first win since Nurburgring last year. The Portuguese driver was within half a second of the 25-year-old, but admitted to German broadcaster Das Erste, that he “didn’t want to take any risks.”
Pole sitter Augusto Farfus slipped down the order straight after the start, but would be embroiled in a race-long battle with Mercedes’ Gary Paffett until the penultimate lap. The Brit went wide and eventually finished 11th, after the slightest of contact to the left rear of Farfus’ M4.
Bruno Spengler looked on the pace from the start, and was fighting with Jamie Green for sixth place, until the points leader went wide and beached his Team Rosberg RS5 DTM into the gravel. Green’s off-track excursion brought out the first “Slow Zone” in the DTM’s history.
The 2012 champion would lead fellow BMW drivers Timo Glock and Tom Blomqvist to the finish line, with the pair rounding out the historic BMW top seven finish, which also sees the rookie driver overtake Mercedes’ Lucas Auer in the drivers’ standings.
Mike Rockenfeller and Nico Müller were the only drivers for Audi Sport to finish in the points, eighth and ninth respectively. Rounding out the top ten was Norisring race winner one, Pascal Wehrlein, who was the only driver from Stuttgart to score a single point.
Christian Vietoris was also close behind both Paffett and Wehrlein, having battled with the latter and Audi’s Adrien Tambay, who was giving no quarter against the Mercedes F1 reserve and test driver. Tambay would eventually finish 18th, having been given a drive-through penalty for exceeding the 80km/h speed limit in the “Slow Zone.”
Mattias Ekström and Timo Scheider would finish 13th and 14th respectively, ahead of Maximillian Götz, Daniel Juncadella and Lucas Auer.
Edoardo Mortara would eventually retire on lap 8, at the same time as Tomczyk, having initially pitted on lap 5 after a puncture. The Italian, who won at Zandvoort back in 2012, parked his car in the garage after the damage on his RS5 was too significant to continue. Miguel Molina was another notable retiree, pitting for exactly the same reason just five laps later.
Qualifying for race two will take place tomorrow morning at 1135 CEST (1035 BST)
Race result
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME/GAP | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 1 | Marco WITTMANN |  |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 25 | 42:30.240 | 1:33.756 | 2 |
| 2 | 13 | António Félix da COSTA |  |
BMW Team Schnitzer | BMW M4 DTM | 25 | 0.464 | 1:33.462 | 3 |
| 3 | 36 | Maxime MARTIN |  |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 25 | 2.229 | 1:33.491 | 4 |
| 4 | 18 | Augusto FARFUS |  |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 25 | 3.768 | 1:33.799 | 1 |
| 5 | 7 | Bruno SPENGLER |  |
BMW Team MTEK | BMW M4 DTM | 25 | 4.514 | 1:33.875 | 9 |
| 6 | 16 | Timo GLOCK | |
BMW Team MTEK | BMW M4 DTM | 25 | 6.054 | 1:33.881 | 7 |
| 7 | 31 | Tom BLOMQVIST |  |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 25 | 7.273 | 1:33.851 | 8 |
| 8 | 99 | Mike ROCKENFELLER | |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 25 | 7.837 | 1:33.910 | 13 |
| 9 | 51 | Nico MÜLLER |  |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 25 | 8.677 | 1:34.045 | 16 |
| 10 | 94 | Pascal WEHRLEIN | |
gooix / Original-Teile Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 25 | 9.041 | 1:33.541 | 15 |
| 11 | 2 | Gary PAFFETT | |
EURONICS / BWT Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 25 | 12.217 | 1:33.704 | 5 |
| 12 | 8 | Christian VIETORIS | |
gooix / Original-Teile Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 25 | 12.906 | 1:33.839 | 17 |
| 13 | 5 | Mattias EKSTRÖM |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 25 | 15.738 | 1:33.866 | 19 |
| 14 | 10 | Timo SCHEIDER | |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 25 | 17.847 | 1:34.116 | 21 |
| 15 | 84 | Maximilian GÖTZ | |
PETRONAS Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 25 | 20.492 | 1:34.200 | 24 |
| 16 | 12 | Daniel JUNCADELLA |  |
PETRONAS Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 25 | 24.636 | 1:33.858 | 23 |
| 17 | 22 | Lucas AUER |  |
EURONICS / BWT Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 25 | 25.656 | 1:34.788 | 20 |
| 18 | 27 | Adrien TAMBAY |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt | Audi RS5 DTM | 25 | 30.023 | 1:34.027 | 11 |
| R | 53 | Jamie GREEN | |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 17 | 8L | 1:33.877 | 6 |
| R | 6 | Robert WICKENS | |
SILBERPFEIL Energy Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 15 | 10L | 1:34.326 | 18 |
| R | 17 | Miguel MOLINA | |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 13 | 12L | 1:34.338 | 10 |
| R | 48 | Edoardo MORTARA |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt | Audi RS5 DTM | 6 | 19L | 2:07.042 | 12 |
| R | 77 | Martin TOMCZYK | |
BMW Team Schnitzer | BMW M4 DTM | 5 | 20L | 2:07.423 | 14 |
| R | 3 | Paul di RESTA | |
SILBERPFEIL Energy Mercedes-AMG | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 0 | 25L | N/A | 22 |