In a dry race, albeit with some wind, Marco Wittmann took his third win of the season in the 2016 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters.
Mercedes’ Lucas Auer took pole but the penalty he was handed in the last race, due to accumulation of warnings (once a driver receives three warnings, he gets a 5-place grid penalty), made him start sixth.
Wittmann benefitted from Auer’s penalty and started from pole, flanked by team mate Tom Blomqvist. Title contenders Jamie Green and Edo Mortara started third and fourth.
From the start, Wittmann controlled the tempo of the race, while the aforementioned Audi’s tried to overtake Blomqvist, to no avail.
The four-ringed cars switched places in order to try and beat the brit’s BMW, with Mortara clashing with Blomqvist at the back chicane, which made him miss that portion of the track and thus obliging him to give back his position to his rival. In the end, the Italian’s tyres gave up and Green overtook him in the last lap to finish third.
The other title contender, Robert Wickens, gained some places due to different clashes of different cars in front of him and arrived ninth, which gave him two precious points, that keep them in second in the standings.
Wittmann has become the runaway leader, with 155 points, followed by Wickens with 120, Green with 116 and Mortara with 115.
Sunday’s race will start at 14.13pm, UK time.
