Robert Wickens puts on Zandvoort Race 1 master class and closes in the standings

HWA Mercedes driver Robert Wickens became the eighth different winner in nine races of the 2016 DTM season at Zandvoort, putting on a dominant performance in Race 1 and moves up to second in the drivers’ standings, ten points behind BMW’s Marco Wittmann who finished second in the race.

Wickens held the lead from pole position into the first corner, with Wittmann second and the Mücke Mercedes of Christian Vietoris third ahead of ART Mercedes’ Gary Paffett and the best-placed Audi of Jamie Green.

There was trouble at the start however, as further down the order the Rosberg Audi of Adrien Tambay bogged down. Right behind him, the HWA Mercedes of Maximilian Götz almost managed to avoid him, but the German was then knocked back into the Audi by the BMW M4 of Martin Tomczyk, with both Götz and Tambay out of the race with damage while Tomczyk was able to continue.

The safety car was deployed while the two stranded cars were recovered, with Tomczyk handed a drive-through penalty by the stewards when the race resumed on lap four, putting him to the back of the pack.

The next major retirement was Augusto Farfus, who retired from the race on lap nine after sliding off at Turn 8/9 in his BMW M4. The race director chose to implement the slow zone instead of the safety car, which spelled trouble for the Audis of Edoardo Mortara and Nico Müller, as both were deemed to have exceeded the speed limit and were handed drive-through penalties when the race resumed, which dropped both drivers down the order and when on to finish in 17th and 20th positions respectively.

Wickens continued to build his lead while Wittmann defended against the chasing Mercedes of Vietoris, who seemed to have the pace over the 2014 champion. With two minutes to go however, Vietoris’ charge faded, and the Mücke Mercedes driver fell back behind the ART Mercedes of Gary Paffett, only to retake the position from the Briton on the final lap through Tarzan.

Wickens claimed his first win since Race 2 at the Norisring in 2015, finishing over seven seconds clear of Wittmann, with Vietoris third and Paffett crossing the line in fourth.

Jamie Green had a quiet run to fifth as the best of the Audis, while António Félix da Costa spent the last half of the race fending off Mattias Ekström’s Audi RS 5, who had the Mercedes of Daniel Juncadella right on his tail.

The ART Mercedes of Esteban Ocon and the BMW Team RBM car of Maxime Martin completed the top ten.

Marco Wittmann still leads the championship on 93 points, but Wickens now moves up to second on 83 points, with the Audis of Edoardo Mortara and Jamie Green tied for third on 73 points.