DTM-MATTIAS EKSTRÖM UNBEATABLE IN THE RAIN

USPA NEWS - Mattias Ekström (Audi) has won the race on Sunday during the DTM season opener at Hockenheim. Having started from second place on the grid, the Swede managed to take the lead on lap four and only had to give up this position briefly during the pit stop.

After getting back first place, he used his skills to pull clear from his rivals and scored a commanding victory after 35 laps. His fellow Audi driver Edoardo Mortara finished second, 7.3 seconds down. Gary Paffett (Mercedes-Benz) showed fantastic progress. From the penultimate starting grid position, the Brit made his way through the field in challenging weather conditions to finish third with a place on the podium as a reward. Classified fourth in the second race of the season on a rain-soaked track, BMW driver Martin Tomczyk only just missed out on a podium finish.

Prior to the start of the race on Sunday, the stewards of the meeting have issued further penalties. And once again, BMW driver Augusto Farfus was affected. Having already been relegated to the back of the grid for the race on Sunday, the Brazilian will now be dropped five places on the grid for the race on Sunday. His team RBM had opened the boxes of the rain tyres already before warm-up, which wasn´t allowed. Team-mate Tom Blomqvist was given the same penalty.
Adrien Tambay (Audi) and Gary Paffett (Mercedes-Benz) were given the harshest penalties. The teams of both drivers had failed to install a mechanical part (“˜spacer´) that prevents the activation of the DRS in qualifying. Tambay and Paffett were relegated to the back of the grid.