2015 Hockenheim Opening Race 2

2015 Hockenheim Opening Race 2
The Hockenheimring opened the 2015 season.
Race Information
Date	3 May 2015
No.	181
Event	DTM Festival 2015
Location	Hockenheimring Hockenheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Format	60 min + 1 Lap
Lap length	4.574 km (2.842 mi)
Distance	35 laps /
Qualifying Result
Pole Sitter	Mike Rockenfeller
Team	Audi Sport Team Phoenix
Time	1:34.516
Fastest Lap
Driver	Timo Scheider
Team	Audi Sport Team Phoenix
Time	1:35.766 on lap 8
Race Result
First	Second	Third
Mattias Ekström	Edoardo Mortara	Gary Paffett
Winner Team	Audi Sport Team Abt
Time	1:02:43.856
Race Guide
Previous		Next
2015 Hockenheim Opening Race 1		2015 Lausitzring Race 1

The 2015 Hockenheim Opening Race 2, otherwise known as the DTM Festival 2015 Race 2, was the second round of the 2015 DMSB Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters Championship, staged at the Hockenheimring in Hockenheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany on 3 May 2015. The race would see Mattias Ekström streak to victory in increasingly wet conditions, his twentieth in the DTM.

Qualifying for the second race of the weekend would see Mike Rockenfeller secure pole position, beating Miguel Molina by 0.030s. Molina would, however, start from fifth due to a grid penalty, leaving Mattias Ekström in second ahead of Marco Wittmann of BMW, while Robert Wickens was the best of the Mercedes drivers in ninth.

Mercedes' charge was further dented ahead of the race, as Lucas Auer managed to crash on his way to the grid, and hence was unable to start. Regardless, it was Ekström who made the best start out front to seize the lead, with Rockenfeller slotting in behind to secure second.

Wittmann would emerge with the lead as the early laps unfolded, dancing past both Rockenfeller and Ekström to claim the lead by lap four, only for Ekström to retaliate two laps later. Rockenfeller, meanwhile, would slip to fourth behind Edoardo Mortara, while Wickens and António Félix da Costa engaged in a ferocious duel for sixth.

After that rain would be the main draw of attention, with the first spots prompting Molina and Adrien Tambay to dive into the pits for wet tyres on lap eleven. The rest of the field soon darted in as the rain began to fall heavier and heavier, with Wittmann one of a number of drivers to have an off before his stop.

Mortara was the big winner, leaping into the lead after pitting at the optimal moment, while Molina leapt up to third. Those two were split by stablemate Ekström, as behind Gary Paffett, then on the boarders of the top ten, emerged as the fastest man on track in the difficult conditions.

Indeed, as Ekström challenged Mortara for the lead, Paffett would storm his way up the field to claim third from Tomczyk on lap 28. By that stage Ekström and elbowed his way past Mortara and darted clear, leaving the Italian to watch and wait as the #2 Mercedes slowly drew him in.

Fortunately for the Italian racer, Paffett would run out of time to catch his #48 Audi, with Ekström sweeping across the line to claim victory after 35 laps. Mortara and Paffett duly completed the podium, ten seconds clear of Tomczyk, while Wittmann claimed fifth ahead of Rockenfeller. Wickens was next up ahead of Pascal Wehrlein, while Bruno Spengler and Timo Glock completed the scorers.

Background

Jamie Green would end the opening day of the season at the head of the 2015 Championship, heading into the Sunday Race with 25 points to his credit. He was hence seven ahead of Pascal Wehrlein in second, while Paul di Resta occupied third on fifteen. Edoardo Mortara, Mike Rockenfeller, Nico Müller, Maxime Martin, Timo Glock, Marco Wittmann and Augusto Farfus had also secured points on the opening day.

In the Teams' Championship it was Audi Team Rosberg who led the charge, having claimed a double points finish in the first race. gooix/OT Mercedes AMG and Silberpfeil Mercedes AMG were next up, while Audi Team Abt completed the top five. In the Manufacturers' Championship it was Audi who topped the table after day one, 22 ahead of AMG-Mercedes in second.

Entry List

The full entry list for the 2015 Hockenheim Opening Race 2 is displayed below:

2015 Hockenheim Opening Race 2 Entry List
No.	Name	Entrant	Constructor	Chassis	Engine
1	Marco Wittmann	BMW Team RMG	BMW	M4 DTM	P66 4.0l V8
2	Gary Paffett	Euronics/BWT Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG	C63 DTM	AMG 4.0l V8
3	Paul di Resta	Silberpfeil Energy Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG	C63 DTM	AMG 4.0l V8
5	Mattias Ekström	Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline	Audi	RS5 DTM 15	Audi 4.0l V8
6	Robert Wickens	Silberpfeil Energy Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG	C63 DTM	AMG 4.0l V8
7	Bruno Spengler	BMW Team MTEK	BMW	M4 DTM	P66 4.0l V8
8	Christian Vietoris	gooix/Original-Teile Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG	C63 DTM	AMG 4.0l V8
10	Timo Scheider	Audi Sport Team Phoenix	Audi	RS5 DTM 15	Audi 4.0l V8
12	Daniel Juncadella	Petronas Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG	C63 DTM	AMG 4.0l V8
13	António Félix da Costa	BMW Team Schnitzer	BMW	M4 DTM	P66 4.0l V8
16	Timo Glock	BMW Team MTEK	BMW	M4 DTM	P66 4.0l V8
17	Miguel Molina	Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline	Audi	RS5 DTM 15	Audi 4.0l V8
18	Augusto Farfus	BMW Team RBM	BMW	M4 DTM	P66 4.0l V8
22	Lucas Auer	Euronics/BWT Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG	C63 DTM	AMG 4.0l V8
27	Adrien Tambay	Audi Sport Team Abt	Audi	RS5 DTM 15	Audi 4.0l V8
31	Tom Blomqvist	BMW Team RBM	BMW	M4 DTM	P66 4.0l V8
36	Maxime Martin	BMW Team RMG	BMW	M4 DTM	P66 4.0l V8
48	Edoardo Mortara	Audi Sport Team Abt	Audi	RS5 DTM 15	Audi 4.0l V8
51	Nico Müller	Audi Sport Team Rosberg	Audi	RS5 DTM 15	Audi 4.0l V8
53	Jamie Green	Audi Sport Team Rosberg	Audi	RS5 DTM 15	Audi 4.0l V8
77	Martin Tomczyk	BMW Team Schnitzer	BMW	M4 DTM	P66 4.0l V8
84	Maximilian Götz	Petronas Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG	C63 DTM	AMG 4.0l V8
94	Pascal Wehrlein	gooix/Original-Teile Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG	C63 DTM	AMG 4.0l V8
99	Mike Rockenfeller	Audi Sport Team Phoenix	Audi	RS5 DTM 15	Audi 4.0l V8
Source:

Qualifying

The second race qualification session took place on Sunday morning, with the same 20 minute format as before.

Report

The session started off in the wet, but within a few minutes, Paul di Resta proved that the slick had the advantage, with the track quickly drying as the session approached its conclusion. Unfortunately for di Resta, he would end the bout in tenth despite his early bravery, as Audi proved their dominance once again. Mike Rockenfeller set a time of 1:34.516 in the dying moments of the session, a time that Miguel Molina came within a hair's breadth of beating, although Molina was to serve a penalty after his race one antics.

Mattias Ekström would therefore line up in second, while reigning DTM Champion Marco Wittmann pushed his BMW into a net third place. Gary Paffett was the fastest of the Mercedes-AMG C63 DTMs in eighth, at least until he and Adrien Tambay were excluded from qualifying for failing to disable their DRS systems. Augusto Farfus also received a penalty (his second of the weekend after a qualifying session), this time demoted five places after his team opened the sealed box containing his wet tyres before the FIA permitted them to do so.

Results

The final qualifying result for the 2015 Hockenheim Opening Race 2 are outlined below:

2015 Hockenheim Opening Race 2 Qualifying Result
Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Time	Gap	Ave. Speed	Grid
1st	99	Mike Rockenfeller	Audi Team Phoenix	1:34.516	—	174.218 km/h	1
2nd*	17	Miguel Molina	Audi Team Abt Sportsline	1:34.546	+0.030s	174.162 km/h	5*
3rd	5	Mattias Ekström	Audi Team Abt Sportsline	1:34.721	+0.205s	173.841 km/h	2
4th	1	Marco Wittmann	BMW Team RMG	1:34.968	+0.452s	173.388 km/h	3
5th	48	Edoardo Mortara	Audi Team Abt	1:35.089	+0.573s	173.168 km/h	4
6th	77	Martin Tomczyk	BMW Team Schnitzer	1:35.112	+0.596s	173.126 km/h	6
7th	13	António Félix da Costa	BMW Team Schnitzer	1:35.113	+0.597s	173.124 km/h	7
8th	36	Maxime Martin	BMW Team RMG	1:35.304	+0.788s	172.777 km/h	8
9th	6	Robert Wickens	Silberpfeil Mercedes-AMG	1:35.361	+0.845s	172.674 km/h	9
10th	3	Paul di Resta	Silberpfeil Mercedes-AMG	1:35.397	+0.881s	172.609 km/h	10
11th†	18	Augusto Farfus	BMW Team RBM	1:35.514	+0.930s	172.520 km/h	16†
12th	10	Timo Scheider	Audi Team Phoenix	1:35.485	+0.969s	172.450 km/h	11
13th	7	Bruno Spengler	BMW Team MTEK	1:35.514	+0.998s	172.397 km/h	12
14th	51	Nico Müller	Audi Team Rosberg	1:35.537	+1.021s	172.356 km/h	13
15th	16	Timo Glock	BMW Team MTEK	1:35.577	+1.061s	172.284 km/h	14
16th	94	Pascal Wehrlein	gooix/OT Mercedes-AMG	1:35.579	+1.063s	172.280 km/h	15
17th	53	Jamie Green	Audi Team Rosberg	1:35.817	+1.301s	171.852 km/h	17
18th	22	Lucas Auer	ART Grand Prix	1:36.017	+1.501s	171.494 km/h	18
19th†	31	Tom Blomqvist	BMW Team RBM	1:36.101	+1.585s	171.344 km/h	22†
20th	84	Maximilian Götz	Petronas Mercedes-AMG	1:36.528	+2.012s	170.586 km/h	19
21st	8	Christian Vietoris	gooix/OT Mercedes-AMG	1:36.988	+2.472s	169.777 km/h	20
22nd	12	Daniel Juncadella	Petronas Mercedes-AMG	1:39.171	+4.655s	166.040 km/h	21
EXC‡	2	Gary Paffett	ART Grand Prix	1:35.270	+0.754s	172.839 km/h	23
EXC‡	27	Adrien Tambay	Audi Team Abt	1:35.373	+0.857s	172.652 km/h	24
Source:

• Bold indicates a driver's best/qualifying time.
• * Molina demoted three places for causing a collision in the previous race.
• ^† Team RBM's duo of Blomqvist and Farfus handed five place grid penalties for a team infringement.
• ^‡ Paffett and Tambay excluded from the result after failing to have their DRS systems disabled.

Grid

The starting order for the second race of the 2015 Hockenheim Opening Race 2 is outlined below:

		2	Gary Paffett	Excluded			12	Daniel Juncadella	1:39.171			84	Maximilian Götz	1:36.528			53	Jamie Green	1:35.817			94	Pascal Wehrlein	1:35.597			51	Nico Müller	1:35.537			10	Timo Scheider	1:35.485			6	Robert Wickens	1:35.361			13	António Félix da Costa	1:35.113			17	Miguel Molina	1:34.546			1	Marco Wittmann	1:34.968			99	Mike Rockenfeller	1:34.516
	27	Adrien Tambay		Penalty		31	Tom Blomqvist		Penalty		8	Christian Vietoris		1:36.988		22	Lucas Auer		1:36.017		18	Augusto Farfus		Penalty		16	Timo Glock		1:35.577		7	Bruno Spengler		1:35.514		3	Paul di Resta		1:35.397		36	Maxime Martin		1:35.304		77	Martin Tomczyk		1:35.112		48	Edoardo Mortara		1:35.089		5	Mattias Ekström		1:34.721

Race

Lucas Auer's race ends before it has even begun.

The second race of the weekend went ahead on Sunday afternoon, with dark clouds gathering around the Hockenheimring, although the race itself would start, at least, in dry conditions. The second race was to be 60 minutes in duration, with all drivers having to make a compulsory pitstop in which all four tyres on the car are changed. There was to be a slight delay to the start of the race, as rookie Lucas Auer ran wide in the stadium section, burying his car in the wall where Daniel Juncadella had crashed out the day before.

Report

Mattias Ekström led the way into the first corner, using his inside grid slot, and a good start, to grab the lead from fellow Audi RS5 DTM combatant Mike Rockenfeller. Rockenfeller soon fell to Marco Wittmann on the second lap, before the current champion forced his way bast Ekström's lead Audi to take the lead. At the same time, Rockenfeller fell to fourth, with Edoardo Mortara claiming the final podium slot, with DRS becoming active on the following lap.

Robert Wickens was leading the Mercedes challenge in seventh, in a constant battle with the BMW M4 DTM of António Félix da Costa for sixth place. Having forced his way past on lap two, Wickens dropped back behind the Portuguese race on lap four. Meanwhile, Ekström snatched the lead back from Wittmann at the Mercedes Grand Stand, before proceeding to open a small lead to the rest of the field over the following laps.

Miguel Molina was recovering from both a poor start and his grid penalty, taking Wickens on the fifth lap for seventh, while Rockenfeller lost out to Martin Tomczyk in their battle for fourth. Further ahead, Mortara managed to squeeze past Wittmann for second, as the sky darkened and the crowd headed for umbrellas and coats. By lap 11, Adrien Tambay opted to pit for the wet tyre, after Wittmann slid wide on his brakes, allowing team mate Tomczyk past.

Unfortunately for Tambay, his race was to end a lap later on his second visit to the pits, while the rest of the field flooded in to change tyres over the following three laps. Mortara was the big winner, overtaking Ekström by stopping a lap earlier and hence taking the lead, while Molina had jumped from seventh to third. Maxime Martin was handed a penalty in the pitlane confusion, having been unsafely released by his pitcrew, meaning he would have to drive through and lose a fair amount of time.

Ekström and Mortara duelled for the lead over the following laps, with the Swede emerging victorious on lap 18, with the race ticking past the 30 minute mark. Gary Paffett, meanwhile, started on a charge from outside of the points, taking advantage of contact between Paul di Resta and Nico Müller to leap into the top ten. An aggressive move on Bruno Spengler into turn two handed him sixth, while Müller was handed a drive-through penalty for causing a collision.

Wittmann was next to fall to Paffett's charge, before the Englishman pulled smartly up to the back of Tomczyk's car, an extra incentive to get past being that the German had hit Paffett in race one of the weekend. A brief encounter on lap 28 gave Paffett third, leaving him to catch Mortara in second. Paffett's charge also seemed to inspire his fellow Mercedes drivers, as Wickens and Christian Vietoris forced their way into the top seven.

Paffett got within a second of Mortara on the final lap, as Vietoris and Timo Scheider tangled in their battle for sixth. He could do nothing, however, and Mortara held on to second behind race winner Ekström, with Paffett third. That result handed Mortara the championship lead, with Ekström and Jamie Green (who was left a disappointing thirteenth) tied for second in the standings.

Result

The final classification of the 2015 Hockenheim Opening Race 2 is displayed below:

2015 Hockenheim Opening Race 2 Result
Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Laps	Race Time	Fastest lap	Pts.
1st	5	Mattias Ekström	Audi Team Abt Sportsline	35	1:02:43.856	1:35.810	25
2nd	48	Edoardo Mortara	Audi Team Abt	35	+7.361s	1:35.923	18
3rd	2	Gary Paffett	ART Grand Prix	35	+8.171s	1:36.092	15
4th	77	Martin Tomczyk	BMW Team Schnitzer	35	+18.785s	1:35.917	12
5th	1	Marco Wittmann	BMW Team RMG	35	+28.929s	1:35.983	10
6th	99	Mike Rockenfeller	Audi Team Phoenix	35	+29.816s	1:35.939	8
7th	6	Robert Wickens	Silberpfeil Mercedes-AMG	35	+30.678s	1:36.185	6
8th	94	Pascal Wehrlein	gooix/OT Mercedes-AMG	35	+34.085s	1:36.429	4
9th	7	Bruno Spengler	BMW Team MTEK	35	+38.929s	1:36.053	2
10th	16	Timo Glock	BMW Team MTEK	35	+39.812s	1:36.392	1
11th	8	Christian Vietoris	gooix/OT Mercedes-AMG	35	+42.630s	1:36.377
12th	10	Timo Scheider	Audi Team Phoenix	35	+46.180s	1:35.766
13th	53	Jamie Green	Audi Team Rosberg	35	+48.537s	1:36.283
14th	36	Maxime Martin	BMW Team RMG	35	+49.838s	1:36.548
15th	12	Daniel Juncadella	Petronas Mercedes-AMG	35	+50.379s	1:36.170
16th	84	Maximilian Götz	Petronas Mercedes-AMG	35	+53.207s	1:36.706
17th	31	Tom Blomqvist	BMW Team RBM	35	+1:06.932	1:35.980
18th	17	Miguel Molina	Audi Team Abt Sportsline	35	+1:11.439	1:36.211
19th	51	Nico Müller	Audi Team Rosberg	35	+1:12.182	1:36.292
20th	13	António Félix da Costa	BMW Team Schnitzer	35	+1:21.578	1:36.389
21st	18	Augusto Farfus	BMW Team RBM	35	+1:24.372	1:36.471
22nd	3	Paul di Resta	Silberpfeil Mercedes-AMG	35	+1:34.157	1:36.492
Ret	27	Adrien Tambay	Audi Team Abt Sportsline	12	Damage	1:36.778
DNS	22	Lucas Auer	ART Grand Prix
Source:

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

Milestones

• Mattias Ekström scored his twentieth career victory.

Standings

It was Edoardo Mortara who left Hockenheim in the lead of the championship, with his fourth and second place finishes meaning he had a total of 30. Jamie Green and Mattias Ekström led the chase as the season's first two race winners, with Pascal Wehrlein three points behind them on 22. Gary Paffett's strong performance in the second race meant he ended the weekend in seventh, while Augusto Farfus' 10th place in race two meant he sat at the foot of the table (of those drivers that had scored.

Green's earlier victory, combined with Nico Müller's points from the first race meant Audi Team Rosberg led the teams' standings, ahead of the two Audi Team Abt Sportsline teams. Their combined total also gave Audi the advantage in the Brands' Championship, with almost twice as many points as Mercedes-Benz. HWA's teams filled the following two positions, with the first BMW backed squad, that of BMW Team RMG down in seventh, 15 points off the lead. Petronas Mercedes-AMG were at the foot of the table, having been the only team to fail to score a point.

2015 Drivers' Championship Pos. Name Pts. +/- 1st Edoardo Mortara 30 ▲3 2nd Mattias Ekström 25 ▲10 3rd Jamie Green 25 ▼2 4th Pascal Wehrlein 22 ▼2 5th Mike Rockenfeller 18 ◄0 6th Paul di Resta 15 ▼3 7th Gary Paffett 15 ▲10 8th Martin Tomczyk 12 ▲9 9th Marco Wittmann 12 ◄0 10th Nico Müller 8 ▼4 11th Maxime Martin 6 ▼4 12th Robert Wickens 6 ▲5 13th Timo Glock 5 ▼5 14th Bruno Spengler 2 ▼3 15th Augusto Farfus 1 ▼5

2015 Teams' Championship Pos. Name Pts. +/- 1st Audi Team Rosberg 33 ◄0 2nd Audi Team Abt 30 ◄0 3rd Audi Team Abt Sportsline 25 ▲6 4th gooix Mercedes-AMG 22 ▼2 5th Silberpfeil Mercedes-AMG 21 ▼2 6th Audi Team Phoenix 18 ▼1 7th BMW Team RMG 18 ▼1 8th ART Grand Prix 15 ▲4 9th BMW Team Schnitzer 12 ▲1 10th BMW Team MTEK 7 ▼3 11th BMW Team RBM 1 ▼3 12th Petronas Mercedes-AMG 0 ▼1 2015 Manufacturers' Championship Pos. Name Pts. +/- 1st Audi 106 ◄0 2nd Mercedes-AMG 58 ◄0 3rd BMW 38 ◄0

Only point scoring drivers and teams are shown.

References

Videos and Images:

• Michael Reiss, 'Lucas Auer in der Streckenbegrenzung', flickr.com, (Flickr, 03/05/2015),https://www.flickr.com/photos/michi_reiss/16856093603/in/photolist-rFvTnv-sh8DK9-syGJJn-syvu8h-syF3uT-syxc5L-sh6w27-sm4Sjn-sh87rQ-skSmDo-rFVf94-qHbdqv-wUsQLJ-xjb7Q5-wDSZEa-xzWagd-xAKb9V-wasGEW-waTPxx-w8NYTD-x3mQ4b-x5aszQ-rdjKYg-wmSHi2-x4Vnom-wN4TNA-qXcEJ4-w8NZ1H-x3fd23-w8NYXg-sCqLhY-sCCHSr-rFR24e-sCs1mY-x4VnMC-wN5e1K-w8xvrW-waag4Z-x5yJQZ-wN4y6w-w8NZ86-w8NZuP-x3mQvo-wa1Afo-wPS6UJ-wa1Aqd-waTQ8v-x5asG3-x6HJJE-sk3gmk, (Accessed 29/08/2015)

References: