Audi Sport’s Edoardo Mortara drove a faultless race at Hockenheim to take his fifth win of the season, but with his main rival Marco Wittmann finishing fourth, the BMW driver scored enough points to secure the 2016 drivers’ title.
At the start of the race, BMW driver António Félix Da Costa made his pole position count to take the lead ahead of Mercedes’ Gary Paffett. Marco Wittmann was able to overtake his fellow BMW drivers Tom Blomqvist and Maxime Martin to be up to third by Turn 2, with Edoardo Mortara fighting his way around the outside line to recover sixth after a slow start at Turn 6, and made his way ahead of the BMW pair over the first few laps.
Mortara was able to overtake the BMW on the following lap, while Gary Paffett battled it out with Da Costa for the lead with Wittmann closing on both of them. At the end of the second lap, the top four were separated by just two seconds.
At the Mercedes Kurve, Paffett made contact with Da Costa, with the Portuguese driver spinning out and falling to 22nd place. The incident was investigated by the stewards, with Paffett quickly handed a drive-through penalty, which promoted the title protagonists Wittmann and Mortara up to first and second.
Mortara took the lead from Wittmann of lap six after getting down the inside at Turn 7. The Italian started to clock fastest lap after fastest lap, and managed to get out of the one-second DRS distance by lap 12.
DTM Hockenheim Race Results
- Edoardo Mortara 39 Laps
- Christian Vietoris +3.040
- Paul di Resta +4.294
- Marco Wittmann +5.030
- Timo Glock +6.103
- Maxime Martin +8.947
- Tom Blomqvist +13.857
- Jamie Green +15.054
- Robert Wickens +16.012
- Martin Tomczyk +21.313
