A surprise all BMW podium in the second DTM Series race at the Hungaroring as the team dramatically improved their performance from yesterday.
It was 2014 and 2016 champion, Marco Wittmann who claimed the top spot having started down in fourteenth place.
Second place went to Timo Glock, who had been leading the championship coming into the weekend but fell behind Gary Paffett yesterday.
With Paffett not scoring today, Glock retook his advantage in the championship to have an eleven point lead heading to the Norisring in three weeks time.
Philipp Eng held off a late charging Mike Rockenfeller to claim the second podium of his DTM career.
Mercedes had dominated qualifying, locking out the first five positions on the grid with Dani Juncadella just behind them in seventh.
At the start, polesitter Lucas Auer held onto the lead from Pascal Wehrlein and yesterday’s race winner Paul di Resta.
Further back, Glock was put into a spin by Audi‘s Nico Müller but survived the contact to continue on – the former decided to take his pitstop at the end of the lap along with Joel Eriksson and Rockenfeller.
Augusto Farfus came in the following the lap.
On lap three a change in climatic conditions brought chaos to the race.
With rain intensifying Farfus came into the pits once more for wet weather tyres as out front Wehrlein took the lead from Auer.
The remaining three BMW’s of Wittmann, Eng and Bruno Spengler pitted on the next couple of laps along with Auer.
However, due to the wet pitlane surface Auer was unable to slow down his Mercedes and collided with a concrete pillar.
This prompted a safety car, with Edoardo Mortara, di Resta, René Rast, Loïc Duval and Robin Frijns taking to the pits for their mandatory stops.
Unfortunately, there was more drama in the pitlane as Mortara slid into the wall and hit the pit equipment – Spengler had done the same during his stop as well.
As a result of this the decision was taken to red flag the race to allow for conditions to clear up and repairs be made in the pitlane.
From the incidents, a marshal suffered serve leg injuries with two others suffering moderate injuries and they were transported to hospital for treatment.
When action resumed, Wehrlein was still leading from Paffett.
Juncadella was third ahead of the Audi’s of Müller and Jamie Green.
In sixth place was Eng, the first of the drivers to have taken their mandatory pitstops prior to the red flag period.
The racing restarted under the safety car, although they did not do so in the IndyCar side-by-side style.
At the restart Paffett was overtaken by Juncadella before making contact with reigning champion Rast.
The Briton was on the rain tyres so pitted as quickly as he could.
Out front, Juncadella found his way through on Wehrlein as further back Wittmann passed Eng for the theoretical lead.
Glock, had been behind Wittmann at the restart and quickly passed Eriksson and Eng to be second when pitstop corrected.
Mercedes’ Juncadella and Wehrlein pitted on subsequent laps as Rockenfeller and Eriksson fought for what was eighth on the road.
In the final few laps Green and Müller came into for their stops which allowed BMW to assume their position at the top of the race.
Di Resta gained several positions late on as he charged through the pack for fifth.
Having yesterday not scored a single point in the race, every BMW driver ended up in the top ten today – demonstrating the unpredictability of the DTM.
Wittmann emerged victorious, with Glock second now back at the top of the championship standings.
Eng held off Rockenfeller for the final podium spot with di Resta just behind.
BMW trio Eriksson, Spengler and Farfus were sixth, seventh and eighth. A very positive day in the end for the marque.
Polesitter Auer came home in ninth, with a lot of damage visible on the front of his Mercedes.
It was another Mercedes completing the top ten with Mortara.
The Audi trio of Frijns, Duval and Rast ended up out of the points in eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth.
Juncadella could only manage fourteenth place.
Late stoppers Müller, Wehrlein and Green were resigned to fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth.
Particularly disappointing for Wehrlein who had been leading prior to the red flag period.
A difficult day for Paffett meant he was eighteenth and last.
2018 DTM Series Results: Hungaroring – Race 2
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