Reigning DTM champion Marco Wittmann propelled himself back into title contention with his maiden victory of the season at Zandvoort.
Wittmann entered Sunday’s race in seventh place in the standings but captured the lead off the line and resisted late pressure from Mike Rockenfeller to surge up the championship order.
Wittmann seized the initiative from pole sitter Augusto Farfus into Tarzan and built an advantage early on, which he maintained through the pit stop phase.
Rockenfeller emerged as Wittmann’s sole challenger and closed up to the rear of his BMW rival, with Wittmann hindered by the presence of the yet-to-stop Loic Duval.
Duval eventually stopped, releasing Wittmann and Rockenfeller, who were separated by half a second, as the Audi driver sized up the reigning champion.
Rockenfeller repeatedly got close to Wittmann through the middle sector but was unable to carry enough speed through the last corner to get close enough to his rival along the pit straight.
Wittmann edged clear across the final few laps to cross the line 0.8s clear, while the late-stopping Duval profited to secure his maiden podium in the category, after Maro Engel suffered a puncture mid-distance.
Mattias Ekström struggled amid tyre issues and lapped several seconds off the pace, but preserved fourth place, aided by Audi stablemate Nico Muller putting up fine defensive work in fifth.
Muller kept Mercedes’ Gary Paffett at bay, who labelled Audi’s tactics as “ridiculous”, as Ekström held on to in fourth, coming home over 40 seconds behind third-placed Duval.
Ekström’s result nonetheless enabled the Swede to move into the lead of the standings, seven points in front of race winner Wittmann.
Maxime Martin bogged down from third on the grid but recovered to seventh, ahead of Timo Glock, who was sent to the back of the pack post-qualifying after an incident involving Edoardo Mortara.
Farfus’ tactic of pitting on the first lap failed to yield the anticipated gains and he came a low-key ninth, while Bruno Spengler completed the top 10.
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