Mattias Ekström hails “very special” victory

Audi’s Mattias Ekström has described his victory at the Norisring as “very special” after he managed to take the Ingolstadt manufacturer’s first win around the Nuremberg circuit since 2002.

Ekström qualified ninth, but managed to work his way up through the field in the early stages of the race, and benefitted from the early safety car period, which came out as a result of stablemate Timo Scheider’s brake failure on the grid.

The double DTM champion switched to the faster option Hankook rubber in this period, and then ran an extra long stint until he pitted again on lap 78, which was enough to see him emerge ahead of Mercedes’ Gary Paffett and Audi stablemate Edoardo Mortara, who he passed on lap 64.

“This is a very special moment for me,” said Ekström who turned 35 today. “The home victory at the Norisring for Audi was something I still had on my list in the DTM.”

“I’d like to thank everyone at Audi Sport, Team Abt, my engineer Florian (Modlinger), my guys and the mechanics as my RS5 was perfect.

“Behind Edo (Mortara), I was able to take it a little easier on my tires. He had some problems while braking, so I was able to overtake him.

“It was thrilling and hot through to the end. I knew that it would be close in the end with Gary (Paffett). Fortunately, it worked out.”

Audi’s head of DTM, Dieter Gass, also paid tribute to Ekström’s performance.

“What a brilliant day for Audi and the many Audi fans who’ve had to wait for a victory of their four rings here at the Norisring for such a long time,” said the former Formula-1 engineer. “We always came close in the last 10 years – now it finally worked out.

“Mattias [Ekström] gave himself the nicest birthday gift by driving a perfect race.”