Steve Sziklai was at the Hungaroring for the DTM Championship and was able to catch some great action from the stands. With race reviews from the PR, we take a look…
Race 1
The battle for the title in the 2016 DTM season remains exciting: with a dominant victory in the 15th race of the season, Edoardo Mortara kept all his chances alive behind the wheel of his Audi RS 5 DTM and considerably reduced the gap to points’ leader Marco Wittmann. After 26 laps of the Hungaroring, Mortara crossed the finish line as the race winner from his fellow Audi drivers Jamie Green and Miguel Molina. In the following positions, Rockenfeller, Müller and Tambay completed the sextuple victory for Audi. “Of course, we are super happy with this result and I hope to be able to win the race on Sunday as well,” Molina said. In Hungary, he scored his fourth win of the season and the seventh race victory of his DTM career. Marco Wittmann finished seventh with his BMW M4 DTM from the best-placed Mercedes-AMG driver, Felix Rosenqvist in eighth. Roberto Wickens, who had started the race from 17th place on the grid, was classified tenth behind Timo Scheider.
After 15 of this season’s 18 races, Marco Wittmann is leading the drivers’ standings with 176 points. Mortara has reduced the gap to the BMW driver, he is now only 14 points down with 162 points in second place. Jamie Green (137 points) has moved up to third place in the drivers’ standings after his second-place finish in the race. Robert Wickens is fourth with 121 points. The second DTM race of this weekend will get underway on Sunday at 15.10 hrs. Prior to that, the starting grid positions for the 16th race will be determined in qualifying from 12.50 hrs.
Race 2
In the 16th race of the 2016 DTM season, Mattias Ekström has shown that he is by no means an oldtimer yet. The Swede, who won the DTM championship titles in 2004 and 2007, scored a dominant win in the race on Sunday from his fellow Audi driver Adrien Tambay. After 36 laps, Ekström crossed the finish line 4.350 seconds ahead of the Frenchman and scored his first win of the season, the 22nd victory of his career in the DTM. “Today, I had a fantastic car and I didn’t have to work hard for this win at all,” the Swede said at the finish. “Usually, I had to fight really hard this year and I wasn’t rewarded at the end. Today, it was different.” At Budapest, Mercedes-AMG driver Daniel Juncadella took the chequered flag in third place. For Tambay, second place was his first podium finish since the 2014 season opener. Juncadella was on the podium after a DTM race for the first time ever. In a race with a turbulent start, Marco Wittmann finished fourth and thus extended his points’ lead again. Over the race weekend, 39,500 spectators attended the DTM event in Hungary.
While Ekström drove an undisputed lights-to-flag victory home, for Edoardo Mortara, Jamie Green and Robert Wickens, the race was almost over before it really got started. Wickens initially lined up at the wrong side of the starting grid and had to start from the back of the grid after an additional formation lap. Pole sitter Mortara had a poor start and had to defend his position from Wittmann on the first few metres. In the process, he damaged his Audi RS 5 DTM. Wittmann and Mortara were given warnings for the collision and an additional pit stop ruined the race for the Italo-Swiss. Jamie Green also became involved in the collision and retired early in the pits.
Prior to the DTM finale at the Hockenheimring, Marco Wittmann is leading the DTM drivers’ standings with 188 points from Edoardo Mortara. The latter has 162 points and, 26 points down, is Wittmann’s only remaining opponent in the battle for the season trophy. After this weekend, Jamie Green (137 points) and Robert Wickens (121 points) are no longer in contention for the title.
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The Racerviews Info
Photos by Steve Sziklai
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