DTM (Rd 2, Brands Hatch)
Mike Rockenfeller secured his first DTM victory of the season at a sunny Brands Hatch today. Having led much of the running, Rockenfeller gave up the lead only when the pitstops came into play; however the Audi man drove a solid ace, edging away from reigning champion Bruno Spengler as the race aged, eventually winning by 7.6 seconds.
Augusto Farfus initially challenged Rockenfeller, before he too fell away as the laps ticked away; however his day finished early, when an apparent transmission problem stopped his BMW on lap 66. The was some contention when the recovery car decided to drag Farfus’ car clean across start / finish, as traffic bore down on him. Meanwhile, Spengler continued onto 2nd with little pressure from behind.
Gary Paffett was originally to fill out the podium, thanks to an off-kilter strategy that saw him pit early, running a long final stint; however a post-race penalty for not slowing enough under yellows dropped him to 6th. Robert Wickens was therefore promoted to 3rd, followed closely by Marco Wittmann (4th) and Joey Hand (5th).
From there, the field spread out a touch, with Mattias Ekström ending the day 7th, a couple of seconds ahead of Christian Vietoris (8th), Timo Scheider (9th) and Pascal Wehrlein (10th).
Martin Tomczyk had qualified on pole, but was dropped to last for being underweight – he would come home 14th.
