Audi driver Rene Rast claimed his first victory of the DTM Series at the Hungaroring after starting from pole position for the second time of his career.
The German was joined on the podium by Mattias Ekström and BMW‘s Maxime Martin.
Rast made a strong start from first on the grid to build a gap between himself and the chasing pack.
Eventually pitting on lap 11, Rast dropped behind Ekström who had changed his tyres on lap three – it was the fresher rubber that gave Rast the advantage in the end to overcome the Team Abt Sportsline driver.
This result slingshots Rast into the lead on the championship.
Ekström’s strategy to pit early on in the race is one that he has attempted in previous races this year, with it having worked for him last time out at the Lausitzring.
Martin also served his mandatory pitstop early on, after starting in last place to run in second place behind Ekström.
It was very nearly an Audi 1-2-3 at the line as Nico Muller challenged Martin for the final podium position but the latter was resigned to fourth place ahead of Audi team-mate Jamie Green who made two great moves to get ahead of Paul di Resta and Marco Wittmann.
Having started from second on the grid, the 2016 champion Wittmann was hoping for a better race after suffering a difficult start to his title defence but a poor start and an overheating car put those hopes to rest as the German was forced to retire.
Di Resta was promoted up into sixth place, followed by Timo Glock and Robert Wickens.
Gary Paffett and Mike Rockenfeller rounded off the top ten, the Audi driver having lost his fifth place on the grid after a braking issue prior to the race required him to start from the pitlane.
Edoardo Mortara, Augusto Farfus, Tom Blomqvist and Bruno Spengler completed the finishers.
Other than Wittmann, Lucas Auer was the only other non-finisher after spending much of the weekend off the pace and out of the points a poor pitstop resulted in the Austrian retiring and with it his championship lead went to Rast.
The next round on the DTM calendar takes place in two weeks time (30th June – 2nd July) at the Norisring.
