Until the Nürburgring round of the 2016 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, the fight for the title was an affair of four drivers. After the Eiffel round, there are two; Or so it seems.
Race 2 started with Lucas Auer on pole (this time he could enjoy it, after getting pole on Saturday but being demoted to sixth due to a prior penalty). The Mercedes were the heaviest cars in the field, with 1,135 kilos, 12.5 more than BMW and 25 more than Audi.
At the start, Auer was able to keep series leader Marco Wittmann and BMW team mate Bruno Spengler at bay, even though by his own admission after the race, it was very hard work due to his car’s weight. Nonetheless, the Austrian saw the BMW’s having trouble as well to keep their race pace, so he decided to keep pushing until the team ordered him to pit.
Credit: DTM Media
After the tyre changes, Edoardo Mortara found himself second, several meters behind Auer. The better rubber and the better weight of the RS 5 DTM allowed the Italian to push in the final stage of the race, overtaking his rival on lap 35.
In the final laps, Mattias Ekström was able to fight for the last step of the rostrum, but a small clash with Spengler when he was aiming for fourth, cut his progression, as he had to give back his position to the Canadian. Without that, Eckie would’ve had a clearer shot at the podium.
The other two title contenders, Jamie Green and Robert Wickens, had a race to forget, the former being penalised with a Drive-Through penalty after clashing with Gary Paffett, the latter not having any race pace whatsoever, compared to his rivals.
With this, Wittmann still leads the driver’s classification with 170 points, Mortara has 137, Wickens 120 and Green 119.
Next up will be Hungary, from September 23-25.
