Jamie Green wins in Zandvoort race hit with late drama
Audi Sport Rosberg’s Jamie Green won the second race of the weekend at Zandvoort, while trouble befell Mercedes Robert Wickens who was running second late in the race, preventing the Canadian from being able to take the lead of the championship.
Green led the way from pole position in his Audi RS 5, while Christian Vietoris has a slow getaway from third on the grid in his Mücke Motorsport Mercedes and dropped to fourth behind a fast-starting Robert Wickens in the HWA Mercedes.
Green was running ahead of fellow Briton Gary Paffett’s ART Mercedes for two laps, before Wickens made a pass down the inside of Tarzan on his Mercedes stable-mate and then closed down on Green, fighting for the lead during the early stages of the race.
Further back, the first retirement of the race was Audi’s Timo Scheider, who’d been knocked into a spin by the MTEK BMW of Augusto Farfus, who was subsequently given a drive-through penalty.
Due to a technical issue, the officials didn’t permit the use of DRS until lap nine, but that made little difference to Wickens fight with Green, though the Canadian made a valiant attempt to pass the Audi driver through Tarzan and the first sequence of corners at the start of lap 11.
The pit stop sequence began on lap 12, with both Green and Wickens pitting from first and second and rejoining right next to each other, but as they worked their way through those who opted to stop later, Green was able to get a break and move out of DRS range of Wickens and maintain a safe lead for the remainder of the race.
Maximilian Götz was the next retirement of the race, running wide at Masterkurve and damaging his Mercedes in the wake of contact between BMW’s António Félix Da Costa and the ART Mercedes of Estaban Ocon.
Miguel Molina would soon be out of the race after he damaged the front of his Audi running into the back of Félix Da Costa’s BMW on lap 28, which is one of a number of incidents which will be investigated after the race.
Green continued to cruise around in the lead on course for victory, with Robert Wickens looking set for second, but an apparent puncture for Wickens with just under five minutes remaining saw the Canadian off the circuit, with Christian Vietoris also puncturing while in fourth moments later, with Vietoris pulling into the pits to retire, while Wickens would rejoin but finish outside of the points in 16th.
The drama promoted Paffett to second and Audi’s Edoardo Mortara to third, with Marco Wittmann scoring key points in his championship battle with fourth for BMW Team RMG.
Nico Müller finished fifth in the Abt Audi RS 5, with Timo Glock sixth for BMW.
Mattias Ekström made the best of an alternative strategy and a number of mid-pack incidents to finish seventh in his Abt Audi, with Mercedes drivers Paul di Resta and Lucas Auer eighth and ninth, with BMW’s Tom Blomqvist completing the top ten.
Wittmann continues to lead the championship, now on 105 points, just seven points ahead of Green, who moves up to second, with Mortara third, a further ten points behind and Wickens, who would have left the race tied for the lead, now down to fourth, 22 points behind heading to the next race of the season at the Moscow Raceway on August 20th-21st.
