2014 Norisring Race

2014 Norisring Race
The Norisring was unchanged in 2014.
Race Information
Date	29 June 2014
No.	173
Event	DTM Nuremberg 2014
Location	Norisring Nuremberg, Bavaria, Germany
Format	Championship Race
Lap length	2.300 km (1.429 mi)
Distance	82 laps / 262.400 km (163.048 mi)
Qualifying Result
Pole Sitter	Robert Wickens
Team	Thomas Sabo/Free Man's Mercedes AMG
Time	47.883
Fastest Lap
Driver	Mattias Ekström
Team	Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline
Time	48.610 on lap 79
Race Result
First	Second	Third
Robert Wickens	Jamie Green	Mattias Ekström
Winner Team	Thomas Sabo/Free Man's Mercedes AMG
Time	1:15:21.118
Race Guide
Previous		Next
2014 Hungaroring Race		2014 Moscow Raceway Race

The 2014 Norisring Race, formally known as DTM Nuremberg 2014, was the fourth round of the 2014 DMSB Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters Championship, held at the Norisring in Nuremberg, Bavaria, Germany, on 29 June 2014. The race would see Robert Wickens claim his second DTM victory, as well as his first points of the campaign.

The Canadian ace had been the man to beat in qualifying, a tenth ahead of fellow Mercedes pilot Paul di Resta. Indeed, Mercedes would dominate the head of the field in qualifying, with Jamie Green the lone interloper for Audi in the top six, while Marco Wittmann headed the BMW contingent in eighth.

Heavy rain during the build up to the race resulted in the Safety Car being called to dictate the start, and would remain out until the field had got a good look at the circuit. As a result the race would officially start on lap three, with Wickens sprinting into an early lead, while di Resta and Green tangled to leave the Scot pointing the wrong way.

There were a lot of battles on the slippery Norisring surface, with Daniel Juncadella spinning after contact with Miguel Molina, while Bruno Spengler and Augusto Farfus left each other with battle scars. Out front, meanwhile, Wickens would make good his escape, while several BMW drivers at the back of the field made early stops for fresh wet tyres.

di Resta was the first of the leaders to make his compulsory stop, with the pit window having been removed due to the conditions. As he did so Green was slapped with a five second time penalty for spinning the Scot at the start of the race, with the #21 Audi crawling all over the back of Wickens.

The race began to settle, with the majority of the field waiting for the circuit to dry before making their stops. Furthermore, those that had stopped were no faster than those that had not, with Vitaly Petrov and Nico Müller both getting penalised for ignoring blue flags as the leaders came upon them.

Spengler was the first driver to gamble on using slick tyres, and after a slow start would begin lapping faster than the leaders. That prompted the rest of the field to storm into the pits for slicks, leaving Wickens as the last man still on wet tyres at the head of the field.

Yet, the Canadian would retain the lead when he did make his stop, aided by the fact that Green had to serve his penalty for spinning di Resta. The Brit therefore slipped behind Christian Vietoris as Wickens jetted away out front, although Vietoris' race would come to a premature end when a wheel came loose in the closing stages.

With that the race was run, with Wickens sweeping to victory 23 seconds clear of Green, while Mattias Ekström stormed through to third. Edoardo Mortara was next up ahead of Pascal Wehrlein, while Joey Hand, Mike Rockenfeller, Adrien Tambay and Timo Scheider completed the scorers.

Background

Marco Wittmann enjoyed a nineteen point margin over his nearest title rival Mike Rockenfeller after the Hungaroring round, an advantage that looked set to remain at the Norisring. Edoardo Mortara, Miguel Molina and Adrien Tambay completed the top five, with Christian Vietoris, the only man other than Wittmann to have won a race in 2014, in sixth, and first of the Mercedes drivers.

BMW Team RMG led the way in the Team's Championship, a five point margin holding Audi Team Abt at bay after the Hungarian battle. Audi Team Abt Sportsline were in close attendance in third, with Audi Team Phoenix in a tight battle with OT Mercedes AMG over fourth. Two teams, Mücke Motorsport and the one car outfit of gooix Mercedes AMG for Pascal Wehrlein had yet to score.

Mercedes' hopes of ending their poor run of results (despite Vietoris' victory) was most lilely to end at the Norisring, at track that the three pointed star has historically gone well at. That said, the gap between themselves and BMW in second was enough that almost all of the Mercedes cars would have to score, without BMW scoring at all, just to get them back into the battle for second. Audi, meanwhile, held a comfortable lead at the summit, yet were without a race win so far.

Entry List

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

2014 Norisring 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 at the Norisring followed the format used throughout the season, with a thirteen minute Q1 session involving all 23 cars, followed by the eleven minute Q2 session. Once the slowest ten of the eighteen in Q2 were removed the final nine minute Q3 session saw the top eight fight for pole position.

Q1

The king of Q1 proved to be Mattias Ekström, although the gap to second placed Robert Wickens was just 0.001s, the last significant figure that the timekeepers could measure. Wickens was leading a renaissance for Mercedes as, for the first time, six of their cars escaped elimination from qualifying, having lost four or more in the previous three races. Only Vitaly Petrov, making his debut, fell for the three pointed star (and was dead last), joined by fellow Norisring novice António Félix da Costa. Also out went BMW Team Schnitzer's Martin Tomczyk, and the two Audis of Timo Scheider and Edoardo Mortara.

Q2

Mike Rockenfeller led the field out for Q2, although that fact did little to aid his bid to get into Q3, as Mercedes proved their dominance in Nuremburg. All five HWA run cars made it through, with Wickens heading them once again, closely followed by Christian Vietoris in second. Jamie Green, at his personal favourite circuit (taking victory four times in the past), was the fastest of the Audis, preventing an all Mercedes top five in the session (down in fifth), just ahead of the sole surviving BMW of Marco Wittmann. Ekstrom rounded out the top eight, having set an identical time to Gary Paffett, last of the Mercedes survivors in seventh.

Q3

Vietoris opened Q3 as the first man out of the pits, but it was Wickens who was on the move, setting the first competitive time of the session, before, a lap later, smashing through the 0:48.000 barrier. Paul di Resta briefly overtook him, before, in the final minutes, Wickens leapt back ahead, taking pole with a time of 0:47.883, the fastest time of the weekend and a tenth faster than di Resta. Green was once again fastest of the Audis in third, with Wehrlein and Paffett rounding out the top five. Vietoris ended the session in sixth, with Championship contenders Ekstrom and Wittmann set to share row four.

With no incidents reported during the session, the DMSB confirmed the session result as it stood at the end of Q3.

Post-Qualifying

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

2014 Norisring Race Qualifying Result
Pos.	No.	Name	Team		Q1			Q2			Q3		Grid
					Pos.	Time		Pos.	Time		Pos.	Time
1st	12	Robert Wickens	TS/FM Mercedes AMG		2nd	48.115		1st	48.016		1st	47.883	1
2nd	6	Paul di Resta	OT Mercedes AMG		5th	48.127		4th	48.075		2nd	47.976	2
3rd	21	Jamie Green	Audi Team Rosberg		10th	48.241		5th	48.082		3rd	47.995	3
4th	25	Pascal Wehrlein	gooix Mercedes AMG		7th	48.138		3rd	48.052		4th	48.008	4
5th	11	Gary Paffett	TS/FM Mercedes AMG		16th	48.355		7th	48.142		5th	48.033	5
6th	5	Christian Vietoris	OT Mercedes AMG		4th	48.124		2nd	48.028		6th	48.033	6
7th*	7	Mattias Ekström	Audi Team Abt Sportsline		7th	48.114		8th	48.142		7th	48.079	12*
8th	23	Marco Wittmann	BMW Team RMG		8th	48.210		6th	48.098		8th	48.210	7
9th	16	Adrien Tambay	Audi Team Abt		9th	48.220		9th	48.223				8
10th	22	Nico Müller	Audi Team Rosberg		6th	48.127		10th	48.235				9
11th	24	Maxime Martin	BMW Team RMG		11th	48.295		11th	48.267				10
12th	1	Mike Rockenfeller	Audi Team Phoenix		13th	48.331		12th	48.292				11
13th	17	Timo Glock	BMW Team MTEK		15th	48.337		13th	48.316				13
14th	4	Joey Hand	BMW Team RBM		18th	48.416		14th	48.320				14
15th	3	Augusto Farfus	BMW Team RBM		14th	48.337		15th	48.329				15
16th	9	Bruno Spengler	BMW Team Schnitzer		3rd	48.119		16th	48.329				16
17th	19	Daniel Juncadella	Petronas Mercedes AMG		17th	48.379		17th	48.375				17
18th	8	Miguel Molina	Audi Team Abt Sportsline		12th	48.303		18th	48.434				18
19th	10	Martin Tomczyk	BMW Team Schnitzer		19th	48.417							19
20th	15	Edoardo Mortara	Audi Team Abt		20th	48.439							20
21st	2	Timo Scheider	Audi Team Phoenix		21st	48.480							21
22nd	18	António Félix da Costa	BMW Team MTEK		22nd	48.488							22
23rd	20	Vitaly Petrov	Petronas Mercedes AMG		23rd	48.544							23
Source:

• Bold indicates the fastest driver's time in each session.
• * Ekstrom handed a five place grid penalty for impeding Wehrlein during Q3.

Grid

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

Race

Despite that penalty for Mattias Ekström, the grid was not modified any further before the race start. Before the start, however, the race officials allowed the teams to open the boxes containing the wet tyres, as a flurry of showers coated the track with water throughout the hours before the race.

Report

A heavy shower as the grid formed up from the pitlane prompted the officials to start the race behind the Safety Car, which was to stay out until the majority of the drivers believed the circuit to be safe. It was as Robert Wickens bunched the pack up on the third lap as the safety car came in that the first piece of drama occurred. Paul di Resta drifted into the path of Jamie Green (his former team mate) just as Wickens exited the final corner, with the Englishman reacting faster than the Scot. The net result was the di Resta found himself pointing the wrong way as Green shot off to catch Wickens, who crossed the line with a two second lead.

Bruno Spengler and Augusto Farfus also came to blows at the final hairpin a lap later, although neither spun, as physical battles appeared to be the order of the day. Di Resta found himself down in twelfth after spinning his car round, as Daniel Juncadella ran extremely wide into the final hairpin. Juncadella then found himself in a spin after contact with Miguel Molina coming through the chicane a lap later, meaning he dropped to the very back of the field.

At the back of the field, several of the BMWs opted to pit in for a fresh set of wet tyres, a move designed to remove their mandatory pitstop requirement, which would usually been limited to the pitstop window. More contact was to be found in the mid-pack, as Joey Hand slipped into the side of Nico Müller, sending the Swiss driver into a spin. A lap later, Adrien Tambay forced his way past Marco Wittmann, opening the door for Wittmann's team mate Maxime Martin to get past as well. Martin and Tambay then went side by side for the better part of a lap, with the Belgian eventaully managing to hold his new position.

As di Resta came into to fulfill his pitstop requirement, Wickens, Green, Paffett and Wehrlein continued to pull ahead, with Vietoris a few lengths ahead of Martin in sixth. Green was then handed a five second pitstop penalty, which he would undertake during his mandatory pitstop, awarded for his contact with di Resta earlier on. But, at that point of the race, Green was the fastest man on track, yet was only fractionally faster than Wickens.

At the back of the field, Muller and Vitaly Petrov found themselves in the race official's notebook for ignoring blue flags, the pair having come to physical blows as the leaders came past. As they served their drive-thrus, Paffett lost out to Wehrlein for third, with Vietoris following his compatriot past a few laps later. Paffett took that fall as a prompt to change tyres, bolting on a fresh set of wets, gambling that the track wouldn't dry out enough for slicks before the end of the race.

Vietoris' charge saw him claim third from Wehrlein, while Mattias Ekström began to weave his way through the lower half of the top ten. The Swede was hoping to put the ghosts of 2013 to bed at the Norisring, having been disqualified from the result despite winning the 2013 race outright. His charge saw Wittmann, Tambay and Martin fall to the Swede in short order, with Tambay using the Swede's move to get past the Belgian driver as well. The following ten laps saw the rest of the field, from Wickens on down, trickle into the pits for their tyre swaps.

Yet, it was Wickens who pitted last, and the team opted to switch to the slick tyre, having seen Spengler bolt on a set on lap 52. Most of the rest of the top ten had already made the switch, but Wickens' timing was better, with the track still wet enough for him to extend his lead, before starting on the slicks as they began to come into their own. Meanwhile, Green fell behind Vietoris after his penalty, while Glock was released straight into the side of Martin Tomczyk, with the former F1 racer handed a drive-thru penalty for an unsafe release.

Tomczyk was also in the wars, locking up into the hairpin and smacking into the back of Paffett, sending the Brit (still on wets) into a spin. Tomczyk was sent into the pits to retire a short while later, as the final cars on wets from earlier on came in to swap for slicks. Meanwhile, Mike Rockenfeller and Timo Scheider were locked in a battle with Wittmann for eighth, while Estrom's charge brought him ever closer to the podium.

The Swede's charge was aided by a collison between Tambay and Wehrlein as the Frenchman tried to get past, a collision which sent the German into a spin. Tambay was slapped with a penalty for causing the accident, while Ekstrom made short work of his team mate Edoardo Mortara, climbing up to the back of Green for third. Yet, there was still drama to come, as the DRS became active for the first time in the race, and Miguel Molina came into the pits to retire.

Next man to suffer in the race was Vietoris in second, whose wheel came lose with just a handful of laps to go. That handed Green second and Ekstrom third, as the organisers swapped to a timed finish rather than the full race distance. But, that did not matter, Wickens started the 82nd, scheduled lap, before the clock reached zero, before coming round again to take the chequered flag. Green and Ekstrom completed the podium, with Mortara fourth and the battling Tambay and Wehrlein fifth and sixth. Tambay later dropped to ninth after his time penalty was applied.

Results

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

2014 Norisring Race Result
Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Laps	Time	Strat.	Fastest lap	Pts.
1st	12	Robert Wickens	TS/FM Mercedes AMG	82	1:15:21.118	-	48.682	25
2nd	21	Jamie Green	Audi Team Rosberg	82	+23.906s	-	48.914	18
3rd	7	Mattias Ekström	Audi Team Abt Sportsline	82	+25.922s	-	48.610	15
4th	15	Edoardo Mortara	Audi Team Abt	82	+32.875s	-	48.809	12
5th	25	Pascal Wehrlein	gooix Mercedes AMG	82	+44.788s	-	49.102	10
6th	23	Marco Wittmann	BMW Team RMG	82	+46.050s	--	48.930	8
7th	4	Joey Hand	BMW Team RBM	82	+47.991s	-	49.013	6
8th	1	Mike Rockenfeller	Audi Team Phoenix	82	+48.803s	-	49.076	4
9th	16	Adrien Tambay	Audi Team Abt	82	+1:14.661	-	49.506	2
10th	2	Timo Scheider	Audi Team Phoenix	81	+1 Lap	-	49.085	1
11th	9	Bruno Spengler	BMW Team Schnitzer	81	+1 Lap	-	49.333
12th	11	Gary Paffett	TS/FM Mercedes AMG	81	+1 Lap	-	48.740
13th	19	Daniel Juncadella	Petronas Mercedes AMG	81	+1 Lap	-	49.064
14th	3	Augusto Farfus	BMW Team RBM	81	+1 Lap	--	49.039
15th	6	Paul di Resta	OT Mercedes AMG	81	+1 Lap	-	48.629
16th	17	Timo Glock	BMW Team MTEK	80	+2 Laps	-	48.912
17th	18	António Félix da Costa	BMW Team MTEK	80	+2 Laps	-	48.708
18th	24	Maxime Martin	BMW Team RMG	80	+2 Laps	-	48.755
19th	22	Nico Müller	Audi Team Rosberg	80	+2 Laps	-	48.994
20th	20	Vitaly Petrov	Petronas Mercedes AMG	80	+2 Laps	-	49.020
21st*	5	Christian Vietoris	OT Mercedes AMG	73	Wheel	-	49.303
22nd*	8	Miguel Molina	Audi Team Abt Sportsline	71	Damage	--	49.374
Ret	10	Martin Tomczyk	BMW Team Schnitzer	59	Accident	--	53.557
Source:

• Bold indicates a driver started from pole.
• Italics indicate that a driver set fastest lap.
• * Vietoris and Molina were still classified despite retiring as they had completed 75% of the race distance.

Milestones

• Second win for Robert Wickens.

Standings

So, Marco Wittmann retained his lead heading to Moscow, and held on to his nineteen point advantage too. Edoardo Mortara and Mattias Ekström now led the charge behind him with Mike Rockenfeller dropping to fourth, level on points with the Swede. Adrien Tambay remained in fifth, while Robert Wickens leapt up into the top ten through his victory, those 25 points being his first of the season.

Audi Team Abt now led the way in the Teams' Championship, holding a single point lead over BMW Team RMG after the Norisring round. Audi Team Abt Sportsline and Audi Team Phoenix remained in third and fourth respectively, with the first Team HWA pairing staying behind them in fifth. There were two teams on the move however, as Jamie Green's podium pushed Audi Team Rosberg further into the top ten, five behind the second Team HWA outfit now led by Wickens. Petronas Mercedes AMG were hence left as the only team yet to score in 2014.

It was status quo in the Manufacturers' Championship, although Mercedes were disappointed not to have gained more ground after their dominance in qualifying. Audi continued to build their lead over BMW, meanwhile, with the Munich based squad themselves not really threatened by the Mercs.

2014 Drivers' Championship Pos. Name Pts. +/- 1st Marco Wittmann 58 ◄0 2nd Edoardo Mortara 39 ▲1 3rd Mattias Ekström 35 ▲5 4th Mike Rockenfeller 35 ▼2 5th Adrien Tambay 28 ◄0 6th Miguel Molina 26 ▼2 7th Robert Wickens 25 ▲12 8th Christian Vietoris 25 ▼2 9th Jamie Green 24 ▲6 10th Bruno Spengler 23 ▼3 11th Augusto Farfus 14 ▼2 12th Paul di Resta 12 ▼2 13th Pascal Wehrlein 10 ▲6 14th Timo Glock 10 ▼3 15th Timo Scheider 9 ▼2 16th Maxime Martin 8 ▼4 17th Martin Tomczyk 8 ▼4 18th Joey Hand 6 ◄0 19th António Félix da Costa 4 ▼3 20th Gary Paffett 4 ▼3

2014 Teams' Championship Pos. Name Pts. +/- 1st Audi Team Abt 67 ▲1 2nd BMW Team RMG 66 ▼1 3rd Audi Team Abt Sportsline 61 ◄0 4th Audi Team Phoenix 44 ◄0 5th OT Mercedes AMG 37 ◄0 6th BMW Team Schnitzer 31 ◄0 7th TS/FM Mercedes AMG 29 ▲3 8th Audi Team Rosberg 24 ▲1 9th BMW Team RBM 16 ▼2 10th BMW Team MTEK 14 ▼2 11th gooix Mercedes AMG 10 ▲1 12th Petronas Mercedes AMG 0 ▼1 2014 Manufacturers' Championship Pos. Name Pts. +/- 1st Audi 196 ◄0 2nd BMW 132 ◄0 3rd Mercedes AMG 76 ◄0

Only point scoring drivers and teams are shown.

References

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