2014 Lausitzring Race

2014 Lausitzring Race
The Lausitzring hosted its annual DTM race.
Race Information
Date	14 September 2014
No.	177
Event	DTM Lausitz 2014
Location	Lausitzring Klettwitz, Brandenburg, Germany
Format	Championship Race
Lap length	3.478 km (2.161 mi)
Distance	52 laps / 180.964 km (112.442 mi)
Qualifying Result
Pole Sitter	Pascal Wehrlein
Team	gooix Mercedes AMG
Time	1:17.547
Fastest Lap
Driver	Timo Scheider
Team	Audi Team Phoenix
Time	1:19.782 on lap 42
Race Result
First	Second	Third
Pascal Wehrlein	Christian Vietoris	Timo Scheider
Winner Team	gooix Mercedes AMG
Time	1:15:47.314
Race Guide
Previous		Next
2014 Nürburgring Race		2014 Zandvoort Race

The 2014 Lausitzring Race, otherwise known as DTM Lausitz 2014, was the eighth round of the 2014 DMSB Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters Championship, staged at the Lausitzring in Klettwitz, Brandenburg, Germany on 14 September 2014. The race would see Pascal Wehrlein make history as the youngest ever race winner, although that was overshadowed by the fact that Marco Wittmann secured the Championship.

Qualifying would be disrupted by a lengthy red flag period, after Joey Hand spun and buried his car in the gravel, resulting in Q1 having to be abandoned. As a result all twenty-two drivers were promoted into Q2, although only the fastest eight would progress to Q3 as normal. Ultimately it was Wehrlein who emerged with pole position, his first in the series, edging out Mattias Ekström by half a tenth.

Rain arrived for the start of the race, which saw Wehrlein make a clean getaway, although he would come under fire from Jamie Green and Daniel Juncadella into the first corner. Wehrlein would, however, just manage to hang on, while Edoardo Mortara, the only driver to have gambled on slick tyres, instantly dropped to the back of the field.

Wehrlein would make his bid to escape during the early laps, with Juncadella likewise easing away from Green as the Brit was caught and passed by Christian Vietoris. Vietoris then dragged Green past Juncadella to secure second and third, while Mattias Ekström demolished his hopes of taking the title by sliding into the gravel.

Green's challenge was ended by a spin on a wet kerb, dropping him to sixth, while António Félix da Costa was spun out completely by Adrien Tambay. Elsewhere, Mortara was still struggling to match the pace of the leaders on the slick tyres, although Bruno Spengler would also make a gamble on the soft slicks.

After several laps and false starts Spengler's pace would steadily improve to match and then better the leaders. Indeed, Wehrlein would manage to lap the Canadian racer before diving in for his own set of slicks, with the majority of the field having stopped by the time DRS was activated on lap 35.

Wehrlein would maintain a healthy advantage after the entire field had stopped, as battles further down resulted in a slew of investigations. Indeed, Robert Wickens and Daniel Juncadella would be penalised for speeding under yellow flag conditions, while Green was sent to the pit-lane for tipping himself and Martin Tomczyk into a spin.

Out front, meanwhile, Wehrlein would cruise to victory, with Veitoris resisting a late attack from Timo Scheider to secure second. Juncadella trailed them across the line ahead of Wickens, while sixth place for Marco Wittmann was enough for him to be declared as the Champion with two races to spare. Augusto Farfus was next up ahead of Tomczyk, Miguel Molina and Mike Rockenfeller, while Mortara claimed sixteenth after his gamble, two laps down.

Background

Ahead of the weekend, all of the attention was on Champion elect Marco Wittmann, whose 64 point lead meant he could seal the title at the EuroSpeedway. The German youngster would win the title outright with victory, regardless of the results of Mattias Ekström or Edoardo Mortara. For the title fight to continue, either Ekstrom, Mortara or Mike Rockenfeller would need to get onto the podium, with Wittmann failing to score at all. Otherwise, the title looked set to head in the way of the youngster, with only 50 points left to fight for after the Lausitzring break.

BMW Team RMG looked to stretch their already substantial advantage in the Teams' Championship at the Lausitzring, almost 70 points ahead before the weekend. Audi Team Abt Sportsline and Audi Team Abt seemed to be the only potential challengers to them, although, like the Drivers' battle, the fight already looked over. HWA Team, meanwhile, were the best of the Mercedes teams, all the way down in sixth.

Entry List

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

2014 Lausitzring 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	AMG C-Coupé DTM	AMG 4.0l V8
20	Vitaly Petrov	Petronas Mercedes AMG	Mercedes	AMG C-Coupé 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 at the Lausitzring was disrupted during the first session, after Joey Hand, the first man onto the circuit, spun into the gravel trap at turn eight. With his BMW beached, and the slippery surface of the circuit meaning that the drivers were on the very limit of control, the red flag was thrown to recover the stranded BMW. The DMSB opted to end the session there and then, with the ten remaining minutes added to Q2, and all 22 cars (Hand being out of the session) continuing on to the second session.

The hiatus allowed the track to dry a little more, meaning times tumbled during the second session and ultimately allowed some unexpected performances. As Edoardo Mortara faltered, Pascal Wehrlein snatched pole position for the first time in his DTM career, ahead of Mattias Ekström. With Marco Wittmann down in seventh, the Swede had the chance to deny the German for another weekend, although Wittmann only needed to finish fifth to win.

Vitaly Petrov enjoyed his best session of the season to take fourteenth, as six of the BMWs populated the bottom third of the field. Adding to their woes were Martin Tomczyk and Augusto Farfus, who were both slapped with penalties for blocking during Q2. Joining the Bavarian back field was Paul di Resta, who struggled to get a clean lap in the difficult conditions, an issue shared by Swiss Nico Müller.

Post-Qualifying

The final qualifying result for the 2014 Lausitzring Race are outlined below:

2014 Lausitzring Race Qualifying Result
Pos.	No.	Name	Team		Q1*			Q2			Q3		Grid
					Pos.	Time		Pos.	Time		Pos.	Time
1st	25	Pascal Wehrlein	gooix Mercedes AMG					3rd	1:17.880		1st	1:17.547	1
2nd	7	Mattias Ekström	Audi Team Abt Sportsline					2nd	1:17.864		2nd	1:17.604	2
3rd	21	Jamie Green	Audi Team Rosberg					8th	1:18.095		3rd	1:17.715	3
4th	2	Timo Scheider	Audi Team Phoenix					1st	1:17.699		4th	1:17.761	4
5th	19	Daniel Juncadella	Petronas Mercedes AMG					4th	1:17.940		5th	1:17.779	5
6th	8	Miguel Molina	Audi Team Abt Sportsline					7th	1:18.026		6th	1:17.786	6
7th	23	Marco Wittmann	BMW Team RMG					6th	1:17.981		7th	1:18.143	7
8th	11	Gary Paffett	TS/FM Mercedes AMG					5th	1:17.980		8th	1:18.291	8
9th	17	Timo Glock	BMW Team MTEK					9th	1:18.141				9
10th	1	Mike Rockenfeller	Audi Team Phoenix					10th	1:18.150				10
11th	5	Christian Vietoris	OT Mercedes AMG					11th	1:18.202				11
12th	12	Robert Wickens	TS/FM Mercedes AMG					12th	1:18.250				12
13th	15	Edoardo Mortara	Audi Team Abt					13th	1:18.299				13
14th	20	Vitaly Petrov	Petronas Mercedes AMG					14th	1:18.314				14
15th†	3	Augusto Farfus	BMW Team RBM					15th	1:18.343				20
16th	24	Maxime Martin	BMW Team RMG					16th	1:18.375				15
17th	9	Bruno Spengler	BMW Team Schnitzer					17th	1:18.416				16
18th	16	Adrien Tambay	Audi Team Abt					18th	1:18.467				17
19th	18	António Félix da Costa	BMW Team MTEK					19th	1:18.491				18
20th	22	Nico Müller	Audi Team Rosberg					20th	1:18.591				19
21st†	10	Martin Tomczyk	BMW Team Schnitzer					21st	1:18.629				23
22nd	6	Paul di Resta	OT Mercedes AMG					22nd	1:18.699				21
NC	4	Joey Hand	BMW Team RBM					NC	—				22
Source:

• Bold indicates the fastest driver's time in each session.
• * Q1 was abandoned after Hand spun into the gravel before anyone could set a time.
• ^† Farfus and Tomczyk were dropped five places for blocking in the pitlane during the second session.

Grid

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

Race

Heavy rain on Sunday morning meant that the circuit was wet as the cars started their formation lap, with the majority starting on wets. Only Edoardo Mortara gambled on slick tyres from thirteenth, with the Italian hoping that he could leap through the field to keep his slim title hopes alive. With wet conditions declared, the pitwindow was removed, although drivers would still have to make a mandatory pitstop during the race.

Report

Electric starts by Daniel Juncadella and Jamie Green off the line launched them up to second and third respectively, although both tried to round Pascal Wehrlein who just managed to avoid their clutches. Mattias Ekström, meanwhile, made a terrible start and fell straight into the mid pack, although he remained ahead of Wittmann for the time being. Mortara, meanwhile, struggled to get his slick tyres up to temperature for the start, and so slipped to the very back of the field in the opening stages.

Christian Vietoris forced his way up the inside of Green at the end of the first lap, before drafting past Juncadella for second into turn one. The Brit then followed the German through to effectively hold onto third, while Martin Tomczyk was spun round by team mate Bruno Spengler. Back at the front and Ekstrom made a rare mistake, throwing his car into the gravel at turn eight, although his rallying past kicked in and the Swede made his way back onto the circuit. However, it was advantage Wittmann for the title, with Ekstrom tumbling and Mortara already thirty seconds behind after just two laps.

Green made a mistake on the exit of turn eight, throwing himself into a spin after touching the outside kerb although the Brit caught the spin and continued having dropped to sixth. The following laps saw Green launch a response which involved a bold move on Wittmann into turn one, the Brit diving past the Champion elect on the brakes. Wehrlein, meanwhile, was pulling ever ahead, gaining almost a second a lap on Vietoris, and over six seconds on Mortara.

Yellow flags were thrown at turn five after António Félix da Costa spun onto the grass on the outside of the circuit, meaning he was the first car to retire. Adrien Tambay was reported to the stewards for causing the incident as Spengler opted to pit for slicks, an optimistic call given Mortara's struggles. Mike Rockenfeller, in the mean time, barged his way past Timo Glock for seventh, inadvertently opening the door to Robert Wickens to get onto his tail.

Down the main straight and Rockenfeller lauched a swift attack on Wittmann, claiming sixth a lap later with a dive down the inside of the final corner. Once again, Wickens was able to take advantage of Rocky's move, and snuck his Mercedes down the inside of the BMW for seventh into the first corner. Further round the lap and Wickens forced his way past Rockenfeller for sixth, giving a slight nudge to the Audi as they came off the back straight.

Wickens was placed under investigation for the incident, but he was busy harassing Green for fifth at the time. Their battle was decided by another mistake by Green, who mirrored Ekstrom's off earlier in the race and ran across the gravel, dropping behind the Swede. Green began fighting back immediately to recover for a second time in the race as Wickens was given a warning for causing contact. Wehrlein, meanwhile, made a minor mistake to lose a couple of seconds, having lapped Spengler and Mortara on their slicks.

Wickens was again in the stewards eyes barely moments later, as he joined a list of five drivers under investigation for ignoring yellow flags. He was penalised as was Juncadella, as several drivers decided that it was time to complete their stops. Ekstrom was one of those to pit, a move that proved fatal for his title challenge when he lost his front left wheel. Wickens, meanwhile, was battling past Wittmann for the second time in the race, while Paul di Resta, up from the back of the field, was also placing the Champion elect under pressure.

Green tapped the back of Tomczyk into turn six, sending both into a spin in what looked a purely accidental move. The stewards disagreed, however, sending the Brit for a trip through the pitlane as punishment, as the field swept in to change to slick, and soft, tyres as the halfway mark passed. With the majority of the field on slicks, DRS was activated for the first time on lap 35, meaning that cars within two seconds of another had the aid of the moveable rear wing.

Paul di Resta remained in the top six after the stops, and now found himself defending from Wittmann as Wehrlein lapped Spengler and Mortara for a second time. Their battle was concluded after di Resta suffered a failure through turn eight, putting him out of the race, while Timo Scheider fought a rear guard action from Juncadella to hold third. Gary Paffett, meanwhile, lost part of his rear bumper after going for a gap between Green and Adrien Tambay into turn nine. The Mercedes was forced across the front of the Playboy Audi after Green drifted across in the braking zone, with the blue and yellow Merc losing some of the aero pieces on the rear left corner.

The closing stages saw Scheider's defence become an attack, the drying track seeing him drag Vietoris into his sights for second as Juncadella held station. Rockenfeller and Joey Hand were under investigation for an incident, the German receiving a warning for causing the American to spin, while Green was forced to drag his Audi into the pits to retire with four laps to go. Scheider latched onto the back of Vietoris with just one lap to go, and threw everything at the Mercedes in an attempt to get past.

But, out front, Wehrlein completed an impressive display to become the youngest ever winner in DTM history, ahead of Vietoris and Scheider. But, his achievement was overshadowed by Wittmann, whose sixth place finish meant he won the title, and became the earliest winner of the crown. Their respective results ensured that 2014 would be remembered as the year of the youngsters, with Scheider the only member of the old guard to score a top five finish.

Results

The final classification of the 2014 Lausitzring Race is displayed below:

2014 Lausitzring Race Result
Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Laps	Time	Strat.	Fastest lap	Pts.
1st	25	Pascal Wehrlein	gooix Mercedes AMG	52	1:15:47.314	-	1:19.976	25
2nd	5	Christian Vietoris	OT Mercedes AMG	52	+15.418s	-	1:20.464	18
3rd	2	Timo Scheider	Audi Team Phoenix	52	+15.681s	-	1:19.782	15
4th	19	Daniel Juncadella		52	+18.024s	-	1:19.978	12
5th	12	Robert Wickens	TS/FM Mercedes AMG	52	+32.677s	-	1:20.317	10
6th	23	Marco Wittmann	BMW Team RMG	52	+48.435s	-	1:20.415	8
7th	3	Augusto Farfus	BMW Team RBM	52	+1:02.380	-	1:20.693	6
8th	10	Martin Tomczyk	BMW Team Schnitzer	52	+1:07.705	-	1:20.445	4
9th	8	Miguel Molina	Audi Team Abt Sportsline	52	+1:08.719	-	1:20.343	2
10th	1	Mike Rockenfeller	Audi Team Phoenix	52	+1:13.480	-	1:21.270	1
11th	4	Joey Hand	BMW Team RBM	52	+1:14.734	-	1:20.929
12th	20	Vitaly Petrov		52	+1:19.199	-	1:20.461
13th	11	Gary Paffett	TS/FM Mercedes AMG	51	+1 Lap	-	1:20.739
14th	24	Maxime Martin	BMW Team RMG	51	+1 lap	-	1:20.257
15th	9	Bruno Spengler	BMW Team Schnitzer	50	+2 laps	-	1:20.273
16th	15	Edoardo Mortara	Audi Team Abt	50	+2 laps	-	1:20.074
17th	21	Jamie Green	Audi Team Rosberg	48	+4 laps	-	1:20.174
18th	16	Adrien Tambay	Audi Team Abt	41	Retired	-	1:20.843
Ret	6	Paul di Resta	OT Mercedes AMG	38	Overheating	-	1:22.081
Ret	7	Mattias Ekström	Audi Team Abt Sportsline	26	Wheel	-	1:31.025
Ret	17	Timo Glock	BMW Team MTEK	19	Retired	-	1:31.491
Ret	22	Nico Müller	Audi Team Rosberg	14	Engine	-	1:31.094
Ret	18	António Félix da Costa	BMW Team MTEK	6	Spin	-	1:32.413
Source:

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

Milestones

• Marco Wittmann declared as the 2014 DMSB Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters Championship for Drivers Champion.
  • Wittmann became the youngest DTM Champion since the series was relaunched in 2000
• Maiden victory for Pascal Wehrlein.
  • Wehrlein set a new record for youngest ever race winner in the DTM.

Standings

With sixth place, and eight points in the bag, Marco Wittmann was officially the 2014 DMSB Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters Championship Champion with two races to spare. Mattias Ekström, Edoardo Mortara and Mike Rockenfeller were left to fight for second, while Christian Vietoris looked set to finish as the best Mercedes driver, having leapt up to second in the table to join the chase to be runner up. Pascal Wehrlein leapt through the field following his victory, breaking into the top ten.

The strongest showing of the season by the three pointed star also meant that they climbed up the order in the Teams' Championship, OT Mercedes AMG returning to the top five. Mücke Motorsport remained bottom of the table, but had made gains once again through Daniel Juncadella, while Wehrlein's single handed efforts brought the third HWA team within a point of the second outfit. Mercedes also made progress in the Brand's battle, although they had no hope of catching Audi or BMW, who left the EuroSpeedway in another stalemate.

 

2014 Drivers' Championship Pos. Name Pts. +/- 1st Marco Wittmann 128 ◄0 2nd Christian Vietoris 59 ▲4 3rd Mattias Ekström 56 ▼1 4th Edoardo Mortara 56 ▼1 5th Mike Rockenfeller 54 ▼1 6th Bruno Spengler 42 ▼1 7th Pascal Wehrlein 40 ▲10 8th Maxime Martin 39 ▼1 9th Augusto Farfus 39 ◄0 10th Robert Wickens 37 ▲2 11th Adrien Tambay 36 ▼3 12th Timo Scheider 34 ▲4 13th Timo Glock 33 ▼3 14th Miguel Molina 28 ▼1 15th Jamie Green 28 ▼4 16th Martin Tomczyk 28 ▼1 17th Paul di Resta 24 ▼3 18th Daniel Juncadella 22 ▲1 19th Nico Müller 10 ▼1 20th Joey Hand 6 ◄0 21st António Félix da Costa 4 ◄0 22nd Gary Paffett 4 ◄0 23rd Vitaly Petrov 0 ◄0

2014 Teams' Championship Pos. Name Pts. +/- 1st BMW Team RMG 167 ◄0 2nd Audi Team Abt Sportsline 92 ◄0 3rd Audi Team Phoenix 88 ▲1 4th Audi Team Abt 84 ▼1 5th OT Mercedes AMG 83 ▲1 6th BMW Team Schnitzer 70 ▼1 7th BMW Team RBM 45 ◄0 8th TS/FM Mercedes AMG 41 ▲2 9th gooix Mercedes AMG 40 ▲2 10th Audi Team Rosberg 38 ▼2 11th BMW Team MTEK 37 ▼2 12th Petronas Mercedes AMG 22 ◄0 2014 Manufacturers' Championship Pos. Name Pts. +/- 1st BMW 320 ◄0 2nd Audi 312 ◄0 3rd Mercedes 186 ◄0

Only point scoring drivers and teams are shown.

References

Videos and Images:

References: