Norisring DTM: Robert Wickens claims second series win
Robert Wickens took a perfect lights-to-flag victory in the fourth DTM race of the 2014 season, staged in mixed conditions at the Norisring
With the first five laps of the race taking place behind the safety car due to the rain, Wickens made a perfect getaway when the race went green.
Aided by Paul di Resta spinning across the front of Jamie Green right behind him at the last corner, which held most of the field up, Wickens managed to have a 3.2-second gap after just a single racing lap.
Green did show signs of taking the race to the Canadian, quickly closing the gap to within two seconds, but he was unable to make a serious play for the lead.
By mid-race distance Wickens had managed to massage the gap back out to more than 10s, which ballooned to more than 15s after he stopped for option tyres on Lap 58, as the track dried out. From there, he cruised to a 23.9s win.
Green did end up finishing second, but it could easily have been third. The Audi driver was jumped by Christian Vietoris during the stops, only re-claiming second when Vietoris was struck with a right-front wheel problem on Lap 75.
Mattias Ekstrom was another to benefit from Vietoris' misfortune, grabbing third as the Mercedes rolled to a stop.
Edorardo Mortara finished fourth, ahead of a thrilling battle for fifth between Adrien Tambay and Pascal Wehrlein.
It was the Frenchman who ultimately claimed the position, after escaping penalty for clashing into Wehrlein while trying to go past a handful of laps from the end.
There was another frantic squabble over eighth - which became seventh when Vietoris retired - between the BMWs of Joey Hand and Marco Wittmann, and the Audis of Mike Rockenfeller and Timo Scheider.
In the end it was points leader Wittmann who came out on top, ahead of Hand. Rockenfeller and Scheider rounded out the top 10.
Gary Paffett and Paul di Resta both had disappointing races.
Di Resta struggled to recover from spinning at the start of the race and came home 15th.
Paffett, meanwhile, looked strong in the early stages of the race, but was spun late in the race by Martim Tomczyk, which left him down in 12th.
NEWS UPDATE: DTM trio hit with post-race penalties
Results - 82 laps: Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Robert Wickens HWA Mercedes 1h15m21.118s 2. Jamie Green Rosberg Audi +23.906s 3. Mattias Ekstrom Abt Audi +25.922s 4. Edoardo Mortara Abt Audi +32.875s 5. Adrien Tambay Abt Audi +44.661s 6. Pascal Wehrlein HWA Mercedes +44.788s 7. Marco Wittmann RMG BMW +46.050s 8. Joey Hand RBM BMW +47.991s 9. Mike Rockenfeller Phoenix Audi +48.803s 10. Timo Scheider Phoenix Audi -1 lap 11. Bruno Spengler Schnitzer BMW -1 lap 12. Gary Paffett HWA Mercedes -1 lap 13. Daniel Juncadella Mucke Mercedes -1 lap 14. Augusto Farfus RBM BMW -1 lap 15. Paul di Resta HWA Mercedes -1 lap 16. Timo Glock MTEK BMW -2 laps 17. Maxime Martin RMG BMW -2 laps 18. Nico Muller Rosberg Audi -2 laps 19. Vitaly Petrov Mucke Mercedes -2 laps 20. Antonio Felix da Costa MTEK BMW -2 laps 21. Christian Vietoris HWA Mercedes -9 laps 22. Miguel Molina Abt Audi -11 laps Retirements: Martin Tomczyk Schnitzer BMW 58 laps
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