Martin Tomczyk scored his first DTM victory for nearly two years as he converted pole position into a win at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria.
Having been dropped from the crack Abt Audi squad for 2011 after ten years with the team, the 29-year-old German has bounced back with an impressive start to the season for Phoenix. His victory in Austria was the first for an older-spec Audi in the series.
“This success is a beautiful one,” said Tomczyk. “I am particularly happy that I have been able to score the maiden DTM race win for the Audi Sport Team Phoenix. Today, the good start and the first fast laps were the basis for my victory.”
Tomczyk had to hold on under pressure from Ralf Schumacher late on. The HWA Mercedes driver started the race in third and got ahead of Abt’s Oliver Jarvis at the first round of pitstops. He then set about chasing down Tomczyk, finishing just 0.4 seconds behind.
“Today is a great day, even if it just wasn't enough for victory,” said Ralf. “Throughout the weekend, the times of all the drivers were incredibly close. Fighting each other on the track in such a fair way was fun.”
Jarvis finished in third place, fending off Bruno Spengler, who rose from 12th on the grid to cross the finish line in fourth. Mike Rockenfeller was fifth, just ahead of Jaime Green, while Timo Scheider held onto seventh ahead of Gary Paffett. David Coulthard and Renger van der Zande rounded out the top ten finishers.
Edoardo Mortara and Maro Engel began the race towards the front of the grid, but tangled at the first corner. Mortara dropped to the back of the field, while Engel was handed a drive-through penalty. Mattias Ekstrom started at the back after crashing at the pit entry in qualifying and suffered another pitlane nightmare in the race when he pulled away from his first pitstop with a wheel loose, sending him into retirement.
Spengler remains as the championship leader, but Tomczyk’s win has closed him to within three points. Rockenfeller and Schumacher are tied for third place, nine points behind Spengler. The next round takes place at Eurospeedway Lausitz on 19th June.
Results after 38 laps:
1. Martin Tomczyk (Phoenix Audi) 55m55.117s
2. Ralf Schumacher (HWA Mercedes) + 0.462s
3. Oliver Jarvis (Abt Audi) + 2.749s
4. Bruno Spengler (HWA Mercedes) + 2.999s
5. Mike Rockenfeller (Abt Audi) + 10.364s
6. Jamie Green (HWA Mercedes) + 10.984s
7. Timo Scheider (Abt Audi) + 12.179s
8. Gary Paffett (HWA Mercedes) + 12.660s
9. David Coulthard (Mucke Mercedes) + 14.246s
10. Renger van der Zande (Persson Mercedes) + 15.669s
11. Miguel Molina (Abt Audi) + 16.266s
12. Filipe Albuquerque (Rosberg Audi) + 19.608s
13. Susie Stoddart (Persson Mercedes) + 26.311s
14. Maro Engel (Mucke Mercedes) + 26.805s
15. Christian Vietoris (Persson Mercedes) + 28.071s
16. Edoardo Mortara (Rosberg Audi) + 35.893s
17. Rahel Frey (Phoenix Audi) + 43.420s
Ret. Mattias Ekstrom (Abt Audi) 12 laps
