2014 Hockenheim Opening Race

2014 Hockenheim Opening Race
The Hockenheimring in 2014.
Race Information
Date	4 May 2014
No.	150
Event	DTM Hockenheim Opening 2014
Location	Hockenheimring Hockenheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Format	{{{format}}}
Lap length	4.574 km (2.842 mi)
Distance	42 laps / 192.108 km (119.370 mi)
Qualifying Result
Pole Sitter	Adrien Tambay
Team	Audi Sport Team Abt
Time	1:32.272
Fastest Lap
Driver	Martin Tomczyk
Team	BMW Team Schnitzer
Time	1:32.532 on lap 25
Race Result
First	Second	Third
Marco Wittmann	Mattias Ekström	Adrien Tambay
Winner Team	BMW Team RMG
Time	1:06:40.548
Race Guide
Previous		Next
2013 Hockenheim Finale Race		2014 Oschersleben Race

The 2014 Season Opener, held at the Hockenheimring in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, was the opening round of the 2014 DTM Season, held in early May. the race itself saw the debut of the BMW M4 DTM, as well as Maxime Martin, António Félix da Costa (both BMW, Nico Müller (Audi) and Vitaly Petrov (Mercedes).

Marco Wittmann took his maiden race victory in the DTM by winning the season opener, after Adrien Tambay had claimed his maiden pole position in qualifying. Mattias Ekström and Tambay completed the podium, as Mercedes failed to score a point in the opening race of the season. Pascal Wehrlein was their best driver in eleventh.

Background

Mike Rockenfeller came to the opening round of 2014 as the defending Champion, and was among the favourites to take the title. BMW, meanwhile, had signed up two new drivers, António Félix da Costa and Maxime Martin in their expanded squad for the season. They were equipped with the new M4 DTM, which had been developed through 2013 for the Championship and was expected to give BMW an advantage over the rest of the field.

There were also new faces at Audi and Mercedes, with Nico Müller joining Jamie Green at Team Rosberg, and Vitaly Petrov taking over the second Mücke Motorsport entry. Hockenheim also saw the return of 2010 DTM Champion Paul di Resta, as he reinforced HWA Team's ranks after being pushed out of Force India in Formula One. 

Entry List

The full entry list for the 2014 Hockenheim Opening Race is displayed below:

2014 Hockenheim Opening Race Entry List
No.	Name	Entrant	Constructor	Chassis	Engine
1	Mike Rockenfeller	Audi Sport Team Phoenix	Audi	RS5 DTM 14	Audi 4.0l V8
2	Timo Scheider	Audi Sport Team Phoenix	Audi	RS5 DTM 14	Audi 4.0l V8
3	Augusto Farfus	BMW Team RBM	BMW	M4 DTM	P66 4.0l V8
4	Joey Hand	BMW Team RBM	BMW	M4 DTM	P66 4.0l V8
5	Christian Vietoris	Original-Teile Mercedes AMG	Mercedes	AMG C-Coupé DTM	AMG 4.0l V8
6	Paul di Resta	Original-Teile Mercedes AMG	Mercedes	AMG C-Coupé DTM	AMG 4.0l V8
7	Mattias Ekström	Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline	Audi	RS5 DTM 14	Audi 4.0l V8
8	Miguel Molina	Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline	Audi	RS5 DTM 14	Audi 4.0l V8
9	Bruno Spengler	BMW Team Schnitzer	BMW	M4 DTM	P66 4.0l V8
10	Martin Tomczyk	BMW Team Schnitzer	BMW	M4 DTM	P66 4.0l V8
11	Gary Paffett	Thomas Sabo/Free Man's Mercedes AMG	Mercedes	AMG C-Coupé DTM	AMG 4.0l V8
12	Robert Wickens	Thomas Sabo/Free Man's Mercedes AMG	Mercedes	AMG C-Coupé DTM	AMG 4.0l V8
15	Edoardo Mortara	Audi Sport Team Abt	Audi	RS5 DTM 14	Audi 4.0l V8
16	Adrien Tambay	Audi Sport Team Abt	Audi	RS5 DTM 14	Audi 4.0l V8
17	Timo Glock	BMW Team MTEK	BMW	M4 DTM	P66 4.0l V8
18	António Félix da Costa	BMW Team MTEK	BMW	M4 DTM	P66 4.0l V8
19	Daniel Juncadella	Petronas Mercedes AMG	Mercedes	Mercedes C63 DTM	AMG 4.0l V8
20	Vitaly Petrov	Petronas Mercedes AMG	Mercedes	Mercedes C63 DTM	AMG 4.0l V8
21	Jamie Green	Audi Sport Team Rosberg	Audi	RS5 DTM 14	Audi 4.0l V8
22	Nico Müller	Audi Sport Team Rosberg	Audi	RS5 DTM 14	Audi 4.0l V8
23	Marco Wittmann	BMW Team RMG	BMW	M4 DTM	P66 4.0l V8
24	Maxime Martin	BMW Team RMG	BMW	M4 DTM	P66 4.0l V8
25	Pascal Wehrlein	gooix Mercedes AMG	Mercedes	AMG C-Coupé DTM	AMG 4.0l V8
Source:

Qualifying

Qualifying was split into three parts, with Q1 lasting for thirteen minutes, Q2 lasting for 11 minutes, and the final part, Q3, running for nine minutes. Another feature of qualifying was the elimination of the slowest cars from each session, with all 23 cars running in Q1. The slowest five were then to be dropped, with the top eighteen entering Q2. The final part of Qualifying determined the top eight grid positions, after the ten slowest drivers from Q2 were eliminiated.

Q1

Marco Wittmann set the pace in Q1, after Edoardo Mortara set the first competitive time of the 2014 Season. Adrien Tambay made a late charge to set the fifth fastest time of the session, having been last to that point to avoid the drop, with Mercedes appearing to be in serious trouble. This was shown when Paul di Resta, Daniel Juncadella, Robert Wickens, Christian Vietoris and debutante Vitaly Petrov were dumped out of qualifying at the end of the session.

Q2

Mortara was the man setting the pace in a tight Q2 session, as most drivers found around half a second on their Q1 times. Jamie Green was a surprise struggler in Q2, almost crashing out of the session at the Sachskurve, before being eliminated as the slowest of man in Q2. Also out went the remaining two Mercedes of Gary Paffett and Pascal Wehrlein (fourteenth and fifteenth respectively), Team Phoenix's pair of Mike Rockenfeller and Timo Scheider, as well as fellow Audi runner Nico Müller. Augusto Farfus, Joey Hand and Maxime Martin were the other drivers to be eliminated from qualifying, as eight progressed to the pole position shootout.

Q3

Miguel Molina was the first to set a competitive time, although that was almost immediately surpassed by Wittmann and Mattias Ekström. Tambay, Bruno Spengler and António Félix da Costa were the next to sit at the top, although da Costa's time was then dropped for exceeding the track limits. In the final minute, Tambay improved on his time to secure pole, with Wittmann falling short by a tenth, himself holding a similar gap to Spengler. Ekstrom led the Audi challenge in Q3 with fifth, Molina taking sixth and Mortara seventh, as the BMW of Martin Tomczyk rounded out the top eight.

After the session, Molina was excluded from the qualifying result for a technical infringement, meaning all of the drivers from seventh onward were pushed up a position. Molina's car was not fitted with a dummy camera, a technical requirement highlighted in the DMSB rule book.

Post-Qualifying

The results of qualifying for race two are shown below.

2014 Hockenheim Opening Race Qualifying Result
Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Time					Grid
				Q1		Q2		Q3
1st	16	Adrien Tambay	Audi Team Abt	1:33.263		1:32.538		1:32.272	1
2nd	23	Marco Wittmann	BMW Team RMG	1:32.835		1:32.573		1:32.419	2
3rd	9	Bruno Spengler	BMW Team Schnitzer	1:33.033		1:32.595		1:32.600	3
4th	18	António Félix da Costa	BMW Team MTEK	1:32.841		1:32.564		1:32.608	4
5th	7	Mattias Ekström	Audi Team Abt Sportsline	1:33.019		1:32.558		1:32.624	5
6th	15	Edoardo Mortara	Audi Team Abt	1:33.068		1:32.535		1:32.898	6
7th	10	Martin Tomczyk	BMW Team Schnitzer	1:33.576		1:32.544		1:33.113	7
8th	17	Timo Glock	BMW Team MTEK	1:33.129		1:33.603			8
9th	2	Timo Scheider	Audi Team Phoenix	1:33.383		1:32.706			9
10th	1	Mike Rockenfeller	Audi Team Phoenix	1:33.186		1:32.717			10
11th	3	Augusto Farfus	BMW Team RBM	1:33.127		1:32.739			11
12th	22	Nico Müller	Audi Team Rosberg	1:32.066		1:32.756			12
13th	24	Maxime Martin	BMW Team RMG	1:32.887		1:32.792			13
14th	11	Gary Paffett	Thomas Sabo/Free Man's Mercedes AMG	1:33.179		1:32.834			14
15th	25	Pascal Wehrlein	gooix Mercedes AMG	1:33.406		1:32.840			15
16th	4	Joey Hand	BMW Team RBM	1:33.427		1:32.885			16
17th	21	Jamie Green	Audi Team Robserg	1:33.245		1:32.986			17
18th	6	Paul di Resta	Original-Teile Mercedes AMG	1:33.639					18
19th	19	Daniel Juncadella	Petronas Mercedes AMG	1:33.746					19
20th	12	Robert Wickens	Thomas Sabo/Free Man's Mercedes AMG	1:33.875					20
21st	5	Christian Vietoris	Original-Teile Mercedes AMG	1:34.242					21
22nd	20	Vitaly Petrov	Petronas Mercedes AMG	1:34.367					22
EXC*	8	Miguel Molina	Audi Team Abt Sportsline	1:33.198		1:32.372		Excluded	23
Source:

• Bold indicates a driver's best/qualifying time.
• * Molina excluded from the final result after Q3.

Grid

	Pos.	Pos.
	Driver	Driver
	______________
Row 1	1	______________
	Adrien Tambay	2
	______________	Marco Wittmann
Row 2	3	______________
	Bruno Spengler	4
	______________	António Félix da Costa
Row 3	5	______________
	Mattias Ekström	6
	______________	Edoardo Mortara
Row 4	7	______________
	Martin Tomczyk	8
	______________	Timo Glock
Row 5	9	______________
	Timo Scheider	10
	______________	Mike Rockenfeller
Row 6	11	______________
	Augusto Farfus	12
	______________	Nico Müller
Row 7	13	______________
	Maxime Martin	14
	______________	Gary Paffett
Row 8	15	______________
	Pascal Wehrlein	16
	______________	Joey Hand
Row 9	17	______________
	Jamie Green	18
	______________	Paul di Resta
Row 10	19	______________
	Daniel Juncadella	20
	______________	Robert Wickens
Row 11	21	______________
	Christian Vietoris	22
	______________	Vitaly Petrov
Row 12	23	______________
	Miguel Molina	24
	______________

Race

There were no further changes to the grid after Molina's penalty, with a dry Sunday afternoon beckoning for the grid. The race was scheduled to start at 13:00, and the drivers were sent for their formation lap as the start time approached.

Report

Adrien Tambay made a clean start from pole to lead into the first corner, as Bruno Spengler jumped Marco Wittmann off the line. Jamie Green ran wide around the first corner to avoid the pack, but would suffer later on, hitting the back of Farfus into the hairpin, damaging the front of his RS5. Timo Scheider and Edoardo Mortara had a physical battle over sixth, which included Timo Glock and Martin Tomczyk into the hairpin. Back at the front, Wittmann was quick to repass Spengler before the end of the first lap, as Tambay pulled a small gap.

Green was pulled into the pits with a mechanical warning flag, ultimately retiring due to the damage caused in the collision, as Wittmann made a dive into the hairpin to take the lead. The young German managed to get his M4 stopped in time, snatching Tambay's first place before pulling a clear lead in a matter of moments. In the mid-pack, the man on the move was Robert Wickens, who was heading a group of Mercs from the back of the grid. Having started twentieth, Wickens was attacking Joey Hand for fourteenth on lap four, and was tenth before the end of the eighth lap.

Timo Glock, Timo Scheider and António Félix da Costa were glued together in the battle for third, as the rookie pulled a stunning move into the hairpin to take the position from Glock. It took Scheider several more laps to squeeze past, as Spengler began to fall away from the leaders. Wickens pulled onto the back of his country man on lap nine, taking eighth away soon after, before adding Mattias Ekström to his list of overtakes. The race calmed in the second quarter, as pitstops loomed ever closer.

The first into the pits was Glock, who swapped his soft tyres (which may only be used for 50% of the race at the most) for a set of hard tyres on lap nineteen. The rest of the field swept into the pits over the next few laps, which was bad news for Daniel Juncadella. The Spaniard was on his way out of the pits when Maxime Martin was released from his pitbox in his path, with Juncadella having to come to a full stop to avoid the Belgian. Martin, for his part, was slapped with a drive-thru penalty for an unsafe release, compounded by the fact that the front left wheel of his M4 came off as he blocked Juncadella. Juncadella lost around ten seconds in the incident, while Martin continued after a new set of tyres were bolted on.

Wittmann and Tambay remained in the lead of the race after the stops, with Glock's early stop getting him back ahead of da Costa and Scheider. Unfortunately for him, da Costa and Scheider were soon past, while Wickens, also on the hard tyres, began to tumble down the order. The Canadian lost four places in the space of two laps, falling out of the points positions and never looking like getting back. Christian Vietoris, whom had shadowed Wickens throughout, also began to suffer, having got ahead of his team mate during the stops.

Edorardo Mortara's race was ruined by a puncture with eleven laps to go, causing him to lose alot of time with damage. At the front, Scheider had caught and passed da Costa, but had not managed to pull a gap. When the former champion ran wide at the hairpin, da Costa tried to force the issue, causing them to collide and Scheider into a spin. Scheider continued after losing time, while da Costa earned himself a puncture and a penalty for causing the collision.

On the move in the closing stages, was Ekstrom, who had slipped on his set of soft tyres at the stops and begun to pick up places. Scheider's spin through da Costa meant the Swede was fourth into the final few laps, taking Glock with five to go. Pulling away from the former F1 driver at a rate of knots, Ekstrom was on the back of Tambay after a single lap, before using DRS to take second.

Yet, Wittmann was one step ahead, with his early pace enough to earn him his maiden DTM victory, ahead of Ekstrom and Tambay. Glock had fallen to fifth in the closing stages after Mike Rockenfeller dived past, while Scheider was spun round again, this time by Farfus, dumping the German down to ninth. Hand picked up the final point for tenth, as Pascal Wehrlein missed out on tenth as the best placed Mercedes driver.

Results

The final classification of the 2014 Hockenheim Opening Race is displayed below:

2014 Hockenheim Opening Race Result
Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Laps	Time	Strat.	Fastest lap	Pts.
1st	23	Marco Wittmann	BMW Team RMG	42	1:06:40.548	-	1:33.464	25
2nd	7	Mattias Ekström	Audi Team Abt Sportsline	42	+12.869s	-	1:32.755	18
3rd	16	Adrien Tambay	Audi Team Abt	42	+14.879s	-	1:33.490	15
4th	1	Mike Rockenfeller	Audi Team Phoenix	42	+17.593s	-	1:32.963	12
5th	17	Timo Glock	BMW Team MTEK	42	+21.780s	-	1:33.717	10
6th	9	Bruno Spengler	BMW Team Schnitzer	42	+23.513s	-	1:32.948	8
7th	10	Martin Tomczyk	BMW Team Schnitzer	42	+24.082s	-	1:32.532	6
8th	3	Augusto Farfus	BMW Team RBM	42	+24.913s	-	1:32.734	4
9th	2	Timo Scheider	Audi Team Phoenix	42	+26.138s	-	1:33.373	2
10th	4	Joey Hand	BMW Team RBM	42	+34.759s	-	1:33.978	1
11th	25	Pascal Wehrlein	gooix Mercedes AMG	42	+53.857s	-	1:33.784
12th	11	Gary Paffett	Thomas Sabo/Free Man's Mercedes AMG	42	+57.264s	-	1:33.603
13th	8	Miguel Molina	Audi Team Abt Sportsline	42	+59.161s	-	1:33.160
14th	6	Paul di Resta	Original-Teile Mercedes AMG	42	+1:00.818	-	1:34.317
15th	5	Christian Vietoris	Original-Teile Mercedes AMG	42	+1:02.062	-	1:34.945
16th	22	Nico Müller	Audi Team Rosberg	42	+1:02.479	-	1:32.723
17th	20	Vitaly Petrov	Petronas Mercedes AMG	42	+1:06.591	-	1:34.037
18th	12	Robert Wickens	Thomas Sabo/Free Man's Mercedes AMG	42	+1:11.152	-	1:34.575
19th	19	Daniel Juncadella	Petronas Mercedes AMG	41	+1 Lap	-	1:34.305
20th	24	Maxime Martin	BMW Team RMG	41	+1 Lap	-	1:33.325
21st*	18	António Félix da Costa	BMW Team MTEK	38	Damage	-	1:33.598
22nd	15	Edoardo Mortara	Audi Team Abt	31	Damage	-	1:32.662
Ret	21	Jamie Green	Audi Team Rosberg	2	Damage	-	1:46.961
Source:

• Bold indicates a driver started from pole.
• Italics indicate that a driver set fastest lap.

Milestones

• First race for the BMW M4 DTM.
• Debut for Nico Müller, António Félix da Costa, Maxime Martin and Vitaly Petrov.
• First pole position for Adrien Tambay.
• Marco Wittmann claimed his maiden DTM victory.

Standings

Marco Wittmann left Hockenheim at the head of the table, leading Mattias Ekström in the order that they finished the race. BMW Team RMG led the teams championship, as did BMW in the manufacturers championship, although Ekstrom was leading Abt Sportsline's challenge for their respective titles. Mercedes-Benz, meanwhile, looked to be in dire straits even at this early stage of the season, having failed to score at a round for the first time since the Manufacturer's title began in 2012.

 

2014 Drivers' Championship Pos. Name Pts. +/- 1st Marco Wittmann 25 ◄0 2nd Mattias Ekström 18 ◄0 3rd Adrien Tambay 15 ◄0 4th Mike Rockenfeller 12 ◄0 5th Timo Glock 10 ◄0 6th Bruno Spengler 8 ◄0 7th Martin Tomczyk 6 ◄0 8th Augusto Farfus 4 ◄0 9th Timo Scheider 2 ◄0 10th Joey Hand 1 ◄0

2014 Teams' Championship Pos. Name Pts. +/- 1st BMW Team RMG 25 ◄0 2nd Audi Team Abt Sportsline 18 ◄0 3rd Audi Team Abt 15 ◄0 4th Audi Team Phoenix 14 ◄0 5th BMW Team MTEK 10 ◄0 6th BMW Team Schnitzer 10 ◄0 7th BMW Team RBM 5 ◄0 2014 Manufacturers' Championship Pos. Name Pts. +/- 1st BMW 54 ◄0 2nd Audi 47 ◄0 3rd Mercedes 0 ◄0

Only point scoring drivers and teams are shown.

References

Videos and Images:

References: