Audi Sport’s Edoardo Mortara took victory in race one at the Red Bull Ring in Austria, with the Italian beating of Mercedes’ Pascal Wehrlein, who takes the championship lead at the half way mark.
Starting on pole for the race was Mortara, however the start didn’t go to plan, with British driver Jamie Green passing him on the run into turn one, with Wehrlien getting a similar get away from the line, being passed for third by former champion Paul Di Resta.
However, on lap two of the forty minute sprint race Green suffered an issue with his rear left tyre, causing him to slow and drop back into the pack, and eventually into retirement. This movement virtually set the podium positions, with Mortara going on to win from Wehrlien and Di Resta.
Further down the order and Canadian Robert Wickens suffered problems with his Mercedes C63, with those issues big enough to cause retirement.
The BMW’s, who were so strong last time at Zandvoort, suffered a largely quite race, with Bruno Spengler causing a black and white flag for contact with Audi’s Mike Rockenfeller, with Marco Wittmann also challenging Gary Paffett, making one move to go ahead, only to be re-passed again.
Things then went even worse for Wittmann, with the reigning champion then being passed by Mattias Ekstrom, who then passed Paffett for sixth.
This then lead to the Swede closing up on Augusto Farfus’ BMW, leading to an epic fight as the pair also caught up on Christian Vietoris. On the final lap Ekstrom realised his all, making light contact with Farfus before switching and passing him for fifth.
At the chequered flag Mortara took his first win of the season, being followed home by Wehrlein and Di Resta. Vietoris was fourth, followed by Ekstrom, Farfus, Paffett, Rockenfeller and Wittmann, with Adrien Tambay completing the top 10.