2014 Moscow Raceway Race

2014 Moscow Raceway Race
The full layout of the Moscow Raceway in 2014.
Race Information
Date	13 July 2014
No.	174
Event	DTM Moskau 2014
Location	Moscow Raceway Volokolamsk, Moscow Oblast, Russia
Format	Championship Race
Lap length	3.932 km (2.440 mi)
Distance	46 laps / 180.872 km (112.388 mi)
Qualifying Result
Pole Sitter	Maxime Martin
Team	BMW Team RMG
Time	1:28.619
Fastest Lap
Driver	Miguel Molina
Team	Audi Sport Team Abt
Time	1:28.305 on lap 33
Race Result
First	Second	Third
Maxime Martin	Bruno Spengler	Mattias Ekström
Winner Team	BMW Team RMG
Time	1:15:09.422
Race Guide
Previous		Next
2014 Norisring Race		2014 Spielberg Race

The 2014 Moscow Raceway Race, formally known as DTM Moskau 2014, served as the fifth round of the 2014 DMSB Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters Championship, held at the Moscow Raceway in Volokolamsk, Moscow Oblast, Russia on 13 July 2014. The race, which was the first DTM round to be held on the full Moscow Raceway layout, would see Maxime Martin sweep to his maiden victory in only his fifth DTM race.

Qualifying had seen Martin squeak to his maiden DTM pole, edging out stablemate Bruno Spengler by 0.019s. Nico Müller was next up for Audi ahead of reigning Champion Mike Rockenfeller, while Robert Wickens was the best of the Mercedes drivers in fourteenth.

Martin would instantly convert pole position into a lead at the start of the race, while Spengler gave chase from second ahead of Müller. Behind the rest of the field made it through the first corner cleanly, only for Edoardo Mortara to slide wide and spin Jamie Green to the back of the field at turn three.

The early laps saw Rockenfeller, the first drive in the field to start on prime compound Hankook tyres, begin to slip down the field, while Martin broke clear ahead of Spengler. Elsewhere, Wickens would break into the top ten after a fight with Miguel Molina and Timo Glock, while Daniel Juncadella spun to the back of the pack.

The order would settle down after than, with the only battles on track involving those on hard compound tyres trying and failing to hold on against the soft shod cars. This remained until the pit window opened on lap sixteen, although most of the field would wait until lap 23, the maximum limit for the soft tyres, to make their stops.

However, during the pit-phase there would be a major disruption to the race, with Timo Scheider stopping on the start/finish straight. That not only triggered a Safety Car, and allowed Martin to pit and rejoin without losing the lead, but also led to a brief closure of the pitlane, preventing several drivers from making their scheduled stops.

The restart would see Martin jet away at the head of the field, only for Rockenfeller to misjudge a lunge at Adrien Tambay, and hence leave both Audis with heavy damage. Their debris field would trigger a second safety car, albeit a brief one, with Martin duly acing his second restart to re-secure the lead.

The second half of the race would see those that started on prime tyres make their stops, but run out of time to fully capitalise on those that had used the soft-hard strategy. Elsewhere, home racer Vitaly Petrov would be the last man to stop, while Joey Hand, Molina and Augusto Farfus carved their way into the top ten, with the latter duo getting caught in a late battle with António Félix da Costa and Mortara.

Out front, meanwhile, there was no catching Martin, who swept to victory four seconds clear of Spengler having been unopposed throughout. Mattias Ekström, meanwhile, would make a late move on Timo Glock to complete the podium, with Wittmann and Müller also managing to sneak past the #16 BMW late on. Christian Vietoris was next up ahead of Mercedes stablemate Pascal Wehrlein, while Mortara and Farfus would claim the final points in ninth and tenth.

Background

Wittmann came to the Russian capital with a nineteen point lead over Edoardo Mortara, the Italian the first of three drivers separated by four points. Mattias Ekström and Mike Rockenfeller completed that trio, with Adrien Tambay completing the top five. Down in seventh was Robert Wickens, whose maiden victory at the Norisring meant he was the best placed Mercedes driver in the Championship, with only he and Christian Vietoris in the top ten for the Stuttgarters.

The top three in the Teams' Championship were only separated by six points, as Audi Team Abt snatched the lead from BMW Team RMG. Joining them were the second main Audi team in Audi Team Abt Sportsline, with a larger gap to the fourth placed team in Audi Team Phoenix. The first of the Mercedes teams could be found in the form of the OT Mercedes AMG squad, while Mercedes privateers Petronas Mercedes AMG were the only non-scorers.

Entry List

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

2014 Moscow Raceway 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

A dry, warm and sunny Saturday afternoon in Moscow played host to the qualifying session, which followed the usual three round format. Q1 would see all 23 drivers try their hand at getting into Q2 over 20 minutes, with five missing out on the mark. Q2 would see a further ten drop out leaving eight to battle for pole over ten minutes, with no pre-session penalties meant to affect the starting order.

Q1

Defending Champion Mike Rockenfeller set the fastest time of the first quali-session to cruise through to Q2 amongst a host of Audi and BMW cars. In contrast, Mercedes looked to be struggling as Pascal Wehrlein, Gary Paffett, Christian Vietoris and home boy Vitaly Petrov all fell at the first hurdle, and would share the bottom four places. Joining them would be Martin Tomczyk, who narrowly missed out on beating a fifth Merc in Paul di Resta to drop out.

Q2

A sub-1:28.750 lap proved to be the time necessary for drivers to continue on to Q3, as the final three Mercedes left the session prematurely. Robert Wickens proved to be their best driver in fourteenth, almost half a second slower than Bruno Spengler, the last of those to get through to the final part. Fastest in Q2 proved to be Maxime Martin for BMW, with his time of 1:28.523 the fastest time of the weekend to that point.

Q3

A sudden drop in temperature meant that the times in Q3 were not as quick as those from Q2, although the drivers still had to be on top form to hit the front. Indeed, Martin found enough pace from his BMW once again to claim a maiden pole position at only his fifth DTM meeting, beating stable mate Spengler by two hundredths of a second. Third place, and a career high, went to Nico Müller in the first Audi, as the top eight grid slots were split equally between Ingolstadt and Bavaria.

Post-Qualifying

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

2014 Moscow Raceway Race Qualifying Result
Pos.	No.	Name	Team		Q1			Q2			Q3		Grid
					Pos.	Time		Pos.	Time		Pos.	Time
1st	24	Maxime Martin	BMW Team RMG		5th	1:28.920		1st	1:28.523		1st	1:28.619	1
2nd	9	Bruno Spengler	BMW Team Schnitzer		13th	1:29.337		7th	1:28.711		2nd	1:28.638	2
3rd	22	Nico Müller	Audi Team Rosberg		7th	1:29.098		6th	1:28.699		3rd	1:28.714	3
4th	1	Mike Rockenfeller	Audi Team Phoenix		1st	1:28.834		5th	1:28.689		4th	1:28.714	4
5th	16	Adrien Tambay	Audi Team Abt		9th	1:29.194		8th	1:28.792		5th	1:28.754	5
6th	3	Augusto Farfus	BMW Team RBM		2nd	1:28.882		3rd	1:28.681		6th	1:28.760	6
7th	23	Marco Wittmann	BMW Team RMG		3rd	1:28.900		4th	1:28.689		7th	1:28.844	7
8th	8	Miguel Molina	Audi Team Abt Sportsline		12th	1:29.286		2nd	1:28.583		8th	1:28.925	8
9th	21	Jamie Green	Audi Team Rosberg		16th	1:29.482		9th	1:28.805				9
10th	17	Timo Glock	BMW Team MTEK		6th	1:29.091		10th	1:28.855				10
11th	7	Mattias Ekström	Audi Team Abt Sportsline		8th	1:29.166		11th	1:28.932				11
12th	15	Edoardo Mortara	Audi Team Abt		15th	1:29.419		12th	1:28.980				12
13th	18	António Félix da Costa	BMW Team MTEK		4th	1:28.912		13th	1:29.058				13
14th	12	Robert Wickens	TS/FM Mercedes AMG		10th	1:29.200		14th	1:29.148				14
15th	19	Daniel Juncadella	Petronas Mercedes AMG		17th	1:29.484		15th	1:29.231				15
16th	4	Joey Hand	BMW Team RBM		11th	1:29.275		16th	1:29.270				16
17th	2	Timo Scheider	Audi Team Phoenix		14th	1:29.367		17th	1:29.425				17
18th	6	Paul di Resta	OT Mercedes AMG		18th	1:29.726		18th	1:29.509				18
19th	10	Martin Tomczyk	BMW Team Schnitzer		19th	1:29.749							19
20th	25	Pascal Wehrlein	gooix Mercedes AMG		20th	1:29.836							20
21st	11	Gary Paffett	TS/FM Mercedes AMG		21st	1:29.925							21
22nd	5	Christian Vietoris	OT Mercedes AMG		22nd	1:30.031							22
23rd	20	Vitaly Petrov	Petronas Mercedes AMG		23rd	1:30.443							23
Source:

• Bold indicates the fastest driver's time in each session.

Grid

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

Race

With a dry Sunday afternoon emerging at the Moscow Raceway on raceday, the DMSB published the starting tyres for each car, with the top three all starting on the soft. Mike Rockenfeller would be the first of the prime shod cars, but was expected to fall back early on to the hoard of option shod cars with Hankook expecting a large gap in performance between the two.

Report

A perfect start for Maxime Martin launched him straight into the lead of the race ahead of Bruno Spengler, as the entire field made it through the tight first corner cleanly. Sadly, that was not to last as title contender Edoardo Mortara slid wide through turn two, and was left to hit the back of Jamie Green on the inside of turn three. The Brit, and fellow Audi combatant, was spun out wide, with both falling to the back of the field as a result, as well as carrying a matching set of scars for the rest of the race.

Rockenfeller, meanwhile, was already beginning to fall to the faster, softer, cars behind him, slipping behind Championship leader Marco Wittmann, among others, on his way to sixth by the end of the first lap. Robert Wickens was another driver in the wars, although the Canadian was the one on the warpath, using the tow from both Timo Glock and Miguel Molina to slingshot past the latter into the final turn. Wickens then had to defend the position from the Spaniard down the main straight as he was forced against the pitwall, with the German managing to take tenth place.

Vietoris also benefitted from the battle to snatch eleventh, as Rockenfeller and Augusto Farfus desperately tried to fend off challenges from Mattias Ekström and Glock respectively. Further back Daniel Juncadella was spat out of the pack after being put into a spin, seemingly all on his own, as Martin continued to build his lead. Rockenfeller and Farfus would ultimately surrender their top ten statusesover the next few laps, DRS having not helped their cause.

The next laps saw the field settle down, with Green retiring from the race as a result of his wounds from the first lap. Paul di Resta followed him onto the sidelines a couple of laps later with suspension damage, as Tambay wound up the pressure on third placed Nico Müller. with the Frenchman coming under pressure from Wittmann and Mattias Ekström behind. The Swiss driver tried his best to keep Tambay at bay, but ultimately his pace meant he had to allow his Playboy liveried team mate past.

Unfortunately for Muller, he was unable to slam the door shut on Wittmann, who also snuck past. There was another twist, however, as the next corner put Muller up the inside of Wittmann, opening to door for Ekstrom, who got better drive out of the corner a passed the pair of them. A lunge by Wittmann later in the lap eventually got him past, with Tambay and Ekstrom already bounding away. For Muller, the next lap saw him run side-by-side with Glock in every corner, the German managing to squeeze the Swiss off the circuit on the exit of turn twelve.

Pascal Wehrlein was on the war path, robbing Farfus of twelfth before drawing in Rockenfeller and Tomczyk, who were battling over tenth. Vietoris, meanwhile, pushed Muller down a further position with the Swiss ultimately coming into the pits for fresh tyres as soon as the pit-window opened on lap 16. Rockenfeller, meanwhile, surrendered to Tomczyk to prevent him losing ever more time to Martin at the front of the field, with Mercedes inching their way into the Audi/BMW battle.

Molina took advantage of a move by Wickens of António Félix da Costa to jump two places at turn thirteen, while Wittmann pitted early after the edge of his soft tyres began to fade. Wehrlein, meanwhile, was closing in on Tomczyk, with the pair exchanging blows, literally, down the main straight with the rookie emerging ahead. The maximum limit for the soft tyres now came into play, with the 23 lap mark seeing the rest of the soft starters sweep into the pits.

This, however, was interrupted by Timo Scheider, who suffered a failure of some description on the main straight and had to pull off to the side. The restricted access on the main straight meant the safety car had to be deployed as Martin, race leader, entered the pitlane. Further delaying the restart was the fact that the safety car was effectively half a lap ahead of Martin, while the pit lane was closed so Scheider's car could be pushed into the pit-lane.

With the pitlane closed, the stops of several drivers were delayed, handing the advantage to the Belgian at the front of the field, despite him having lost his 40 second advantage to Rockenfeller, the first of the non-soft starters. At the restart, Martin's advantage became irrelevant, as Rockenfeller misjudged a gap up the inside of team mate Tambay and put the Frenchman into a spin. He was then collected by the Playboy Audi with both out with damage as a result, with the safety car immediately back in action.

The second safety car period worked out better for Martin, with the Belgian as quick as Spengler in second, and seeing the time for Farfus and Molina (the first of those on the hard tyres) reduced to get back through the field on their soft tyres when they pitted. The early stages after the restart saw Farfus and co. have to fight a rear guard action until the pitlane reopened, meaning they conceded ever more time to Martin, as da Costa, Wickens and Juncadella joined Farfus and Molina in their post pit battle.

The final stop of the day was made by Vitaly Petrov, the Russian at his home race, as Molina set the fastest lap of the race in the wake of Farfus. They had emerged eleventh and twelfth, and 28 seconds behind Martin, but had a pace advantage of almost three seconds over him. But, with ten laps to go, the time they had to carve their way up the field was running out.

Juncadella fell to Joey Hand off camera in the closing stages, with the American starting a last gasp charge through the field. Tomczyk, meanwhile, became the first of the now hard shod cars to fall to Farfus and Molina, with da Costa also starting to bring himself into play, as the race became timed rather than distance based. Their charge, however, was ultimately halted by Mortara, who had recovered from his early contact with Green to put himself into ninth, and was now putting up a spirited defence against the Brazilian.

Their battle brought Molina and da Costa ever closer, with contact between the quartet shared equally. A lunge by Farfus ended up with Molina almost snatching the place, but to be put on the outside of the following turn and passed by da Costa, who then set about defending the back of Farfus. Ekstrom, meanwhile, forced his way up the inside of Glock to snatch third, with the German immediately surrendering fourth to Wittmann. They would battle for the final two minutes, as Martin continued untroubled.

The chequered flag fell on Martin two laps earlier the scheduled due to the maximum time limit for a race, meaning the Belgian claiming a maiden win in only his fifth race. Wittmann crossed the line in fourth to extend his Championship lead, as Ekstrom held on to third and Spengler a lonely second. Christian Vietoris had the honour of being the best Mercedes in seventh, as Farfus ended the race in tenth, right under Mortara's rear wing.

Results

The final classification of the 2014 Moscow Raceway Race is displayed below:

2014 Moscow Raceway Race Result
Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Laps	Time	Strat.	Fastest lap	Pts.
1st	24	Maxime Martin	BMW Team RMG	46	1:15:09.422	-	1:29.126	25
2nd	9	Bruno Spengler	BMW Team Schnitzer	46	+4.259s	-	1:29.620	18
3rd	7	Mattias Ekström	Audi Team Abt Sportsline	46	+9.454s	-	1:29.378	15
4th	23	Marco Wittmann	BMW Team RMG	46	+9.591s	-	1:29.569	12
5th	22	Nico Müller	Audi Team Rosberg	46	+10.740s	-	1:29.510	10
6th	17	Timo Glock	BMW Team MTEK	46	+15.632s	-	1:29.489	8
7th	5	Christian Vietoris	OT Mercedes AMG	46	+16.553s	-	1:30.342	6
8th	25	Pascal Wehrlein	gooix Mercedes AMG	46	+19.300s	-	1:30.667	4
9th	15	Edoardo Mortara	Audi Team Abt	46	+20.987s	-	1:30.594	2
10th	3	Augusto Farfus	BMW Team RBM	46	+21.110s	-	1:28.456	1
11th	18	António Félix da Costa	BMW Team MTEK	46	+21.636s	-	1:28.431
12th	8	Miguel Molina	Audi Team Abt Sportsline	46	+21.668s	-	1:28.305
13th	10	Martin Tomczyk	BMW Team Schnitzer	46	+27.181s	-	1:30.482
14th	12	Robert Wickens	TS/FM Mercedes AMG	46	+28.109s	-	1:29.302
15th	19	Daniel Juncadella	Petronas Mercedes AMG	46	+28.625s	-	1:28.904
16th	11	Gary Paffett	TS/FM Mercedes AMG	46	+29.039s	-	1:28.674
17th	4	Joey Hand	BMW Team RBM	46	+29.759s	-	1:28.796
18th	20	Vitaly Petrov	Petronas Mercedes AMG	46	+39.933s	-	1:29.667
Ret	16	Adrien Tambay	Audi Team Abt	27	Collision	-	1:29.678
Ret	1	Mike Rockenfeller	Audi Team Phoenix	27	Collision	-	1:30.948
Ret	2	Timo Scheider	Audi Team Phoenix	22	Engine	-	1:31.641
Ret	6	Paul di Resta	OT Mercedes AMG	8	Suspension	-	1:32.207
Ret	21	Jamie Green	Audi Team Rosberg	6	Damage	-	1:32.147
Source:

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

Milestones

• Maiden pole position for Maxime Martin.
• Martin claimed his maiden victory.

Standings

Marco Wittmann managed to extend his lead in the Championship by a solitary point as a result of the Russian weekend, with Mattias Ekström climbing to second to become his nearest challenger. Bruno Spengler leapt to third, up an incredible seven places, although the big winner was Maxime Martin, whose victory propelled him into the top six. Christian Vietoris remained the best Mercedes driver down in seventh, with Robert Wickens their only other driver in the top ten.

First and fourth in the race meant that BMW Team RMG smashed through the 100 point mark at the half way stage of the Championship, opening a 27 point advantage as they overtook Audi Team Abt. Abt also lost out to sister team Audi Team Abt Sportsline in Moscow, OT Mercedes AMG remained the best placed Mercedes team in sixth, as the Stuttgart squad fell ever further back in the Manufacturers' Championship.

 

2014 Drivers' Championship Pos. Name Pts. +/- 1st Marco Wittmann 70 ◄0 2nd Mattias Ekström 50 ▲1 3rd Bruno Spengler 41 ▲7 4th Edoardo Mortara 41 ▼2 5th Mike Rockenfeller 35 ▼1 6th Maxime Martin 33 ▲10 7th Christian Vietoris 31 ▲1 8th Adrien Tambay 28 ▼3 9th Miguel Molina 26 ▼3 10th Robert Wickens 25 ▼3 11th Jamie Green 24 ▼2 12th Timo Glock 18 ▲2 13th Augusto Farfus 15 ▼2 14th Pascal Wehrlein 14 ▼1 15th Paul di Resta 12 ▼3 16th Nico Müller 10 ▲5 17th Timo Scheider 9 ▼2 18th Martin Tomczyk 8 ▼1 19th Joey Hand 6 ▼1 20th António Félix da Costa 4 ▼3 21st Gary Paffett 4 ▼1 22nd Daniel Juncadella 0 ◄0 23rd Vitaly Petrov 0 ◄0

2014 Teams' Championship Pos. Name Pts. +/- 1st BMW Team RMG 103 ▲1 2nd Audi Team Abt Sportsline 76 ▲1 3rd Audi Team Abt 69 ▼2 4th BMW Team Schnitzer 49 ▲2 5th Audi Team Phoenix 44 ▼1 6th OT Mercedes AMG 43 ▼1 7th Audi Team Rosberg 34 ▲1 8th TS/FM Mercedes AMG 29 ▼1 9th BMW Team MTEK 22 ▲1 10th BMW Team RBM 17 ▼1 11th gooix Mercedes AMG 14 ◄0 12th Petronas Mercedes AMG 0 ◄0 2014 Manufacturers' Championship Pos. Name Pts. +/- 1st Audi 223 ◄0 2nd BMW 196 ◄0 3rd Mercedes AMG 86 ◄0

References

Videos and Images:

References: