Having taken his second victory in the DTM Series last time out at the Hockenheimring, Lucas Auer repeated the feat by taking victory once again at the Lausitzring – one year on from claiming his maiden win there.
Auer was joined on the podium by Mercedes team-mate Robert Wickens and Audi‘s Rene Rast.
Heading to the next round at the Hungaroring, Auer remains on top in the championship with 68 points, a 34 point lead over second place man Gary Paffett.
Wickens had started alongside the Austrian on the front row of the grid but lost P2 in the initial stages of the race, retaking second place after putting up a strong fight and his pit crew serving him a quick stop.
Having started from fourth on the grid, Rast came through to claim his first ever podium in DTM. The German been overtaken at the start by countryman Timo Glock but looked after his tyres ahead of his pit stop to get back past the BMW driver on lap 13.
Following the pit stop he sailed past Maxime Martin to secure his third place finish.
The disappointing start BMW had to the weekend carried on into the race with Martin being the only driver to finish in the top ten, with Glock being the next best placed driver down in 11th.
After coming out of the pitlane, Glock struggled on his cold tyres, losing places after sliding into the gravel trap.
Tom Blomqvist had been looking strong for a points paying position, that was until Paul di Resta coming out of the pits on cold tyres turned into Blomqvist resulting in the younger Brit sustaining damage, eventually limping home in 17th place, and the other being handed a drive through penalty.
Friday’s pacesetter Mike Rockenfeller came home in fifth after taking his mandatory pit stop on lap eight allowing him to easily get past those emerging onto the track on colder tyres, ultimately finishing just 0.150s shy of fourth place.
In his 150th race in the DTM Series, Paffett placed in sixth ahead of Edoardo Mortara who was the final driver to serve his pit stop to claim a strong seventh place finish after getting past Mattias Ekström.
Nico Muller was looking set for a strong finish, until brake issues forced him to retire – elevating Maro Engel to ninth and Jamie Green to 10th, the Briton having had to recover from the back of the grid after he was excluded from qualifying as a result of using tyres assigned to team-mate Rast.
Glock was the first of the non-points scoring places followed by: Augusto Farfus, Marco Wittmann, Bruno Spengler, Loic Duval, di Resta and Blomqvist – with Muller the only non-finisher.
“That was a super race – absolutely amazing. Congratulations to the entire team and, of course, to Robert [Wickens] for coming second. I’m really pleased. Balance was terrific today, and our tyres were extremely consistent. My driving style and a brilliant car combined to give us victory today,” said Auer “my second stint was super. It’s always difficult to win, but I set the pace today. Still, you can never sit back and relax in the DTM because you always have to keep an eye on tyres and manage degradation. I share the team’s delight now at winning but must turn my focus back to tomorrow’s second race.”
