2015 Moscow Raceway Race 2

2015 Moscow Raceway Race 2
The Moscow Raceway in its full layout.
Race Information
Date	30 August 2015
No.	191
Event	DTM Moskau 2015
Location	Moscow Raceway Volokolamsk, Moscow Oblast, Russia
Format	60 min + 1 Lap
Lap length	3.932 km (2.440 mi)
Distance	41 laps / 165.144 km (102.616 mi)
Qualifying Result
Pole Sitter	Mike Rockenfeller
Team	Audi Sport Team Phoenix
Time	1:28.540
Fastest Lap
Driver	Mike Rockenfeller
Team	Audi Sport Team Phoenix
Time	1:29.870 on lap 21
Race Result
First	Second	Third
Mike Rockenfeller	Bruno Spengler	Mattias Ekström
Winner Team	Audi Sport Team Phoenix
Time	1:02:14.818
Race Guide
Previous		Next
2015 Moscow Raceway Race 1		2015 Oschersleben Race 1

The 2015 Moscow Raceway Race 2, otherwise known as the DTM Moskau 2015 Race 2, was the twelfth race of the 2015 DMSB Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters Championship, staged at the Moscow Raceway in Volokolamsk, Moscow Oblast, Russia on 30 August 2015. The race would see Mike Rockenfeller secure a dominant victory for Audi, as Mattias Ekström reclaimed the lead in the Championship hunt.

Indeed, Rockenfeller would be a dominant force throughout the day, sweeping to pole position 0.038s ahead of Audi stablemate Ekström. Bruno Spengler was next up, just 0.002s further back, with just a tenth of a second separating the top seven.

The start of the race would see Rockenfeller edge out Spengler at the start, after Ekström had been penalised for colliding with Timo Glock in Race 1. Otherwise the start of the race was clean, although debutante Antonio Giovinazzi would fall to the back of the field having been one of a number of drivers to run wide at turn one, caused by a swipe from António Félix da Costa.

Indeed, unlike the Saturday Race, Race 2 would settle down fairly quickly, with Rockenfeller escaping from Spengler, while Jamie Green harassed the Canadian. Elsewhere, da Costa was penalised for his nudge with Giovinazzi, while Pascal Wehrlein found himself in a huge scrap with Edoardo Mortara that would last through to the pit stops.

The pits opened on lap eleven, with Green the first of the leaders to stop in a bid to leap-frog Spengler, although his charge was undermined by questionable release into Augusto Farfus. Wehrlein was also caught out as Farfus had to stamp on the brakes, resulting in the German racer losing time to Mortara.

The rest of the stops would pass without issue, although Robert Wickens would be referred to the stewards after recording a speed of 104 km/h in the pitlane, significantly faster than the 65 km/h limit. Elsewhere, Lucas Auer would briefly lead the race during the stops, before surrendering the lead back to Rockenfeller as the pit window came to a close.

With that the race was Rockenfeller's to lose, with the German racer cruising away from Spengler at the head of the field. Ekström, meanwhile, would climb to third in the closing stages after elbowing his way past Maxime Martin, while Wehrlein battled back into the top ten with a succession of moves.

Yet, there would be no challenge for Rockenfeller, who swept to victory four seconds clear of Spengler to claim victory, while Ekström was a distant third. Martin was next ahead of Green, while Gary Paffett kept Marco Wittmann at bay to secure sixth. Mortara was next ahead of Nico Müller, while Wehrlein claimed tenth having run out of time to find a way past the two Audis ahead of him.

Background

Pascal Wehrlein would end the first afternoon in Moscow at the head of the Championship hunt, having climbed up from third with 119 points. Former leader Mattias Ekström was next up in second, now eight off the lead, while Edoardo Mortara had slipped thirteen off the lead in third. Jamie Green was next up having inched towards the 100 point barriers, while Marco Wittmann had shot up to fifth.

In the Teams' Championship it was, unsurprisingly, gooix/Original-Teile Mercedes-AMG who still led the charge, and had moved onto 175 points as race eleven came to a conclusion. Audi Team Abt Sportsline were next up in second, 37 off the lead, while Audi Team Rosberg completed the top three on 117. Mercedes, meanwhile, had enhanced their slim lead in the Manufacturers' Championship to nineteen points, with Audi having held station in second ahead of BMW.

Entry List

The full entry list for the 2015 Moscow Raceway Race 2 is displayed below:

2015 Moscow Raceway Race 2 Entry List
No.	Name	Entrant	Constructor	Chassis	Engine	Weight
1	Marco Wittmann	BMW Team RMG	BMW	M4 DTM	P66 4.0l V8	1,107.5 kg
2	Gary Paffett	Euronics/BWT Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG	C63 DTM	AMG 4.0l V8	1,125 kg
3	Paul di Resta	Silberpfeil Energy Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG	C63 DTM	AMG 4.0l V8	1,122.5 kg
5	Mattias Ekström	Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline	Audi	RS5 DTM 15	Audi 4.0l V8	1,127.5 kg
6	Robert Wickens	Silberpfeil Energy Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG	C63 DTM	AMG 4.0l V8	1,125 kg
7	Bruno Spengler	BMW Team MTEK	BMW	M4 DTM	P66 4.0l V8	1,105 kg
8	Christian Vietoris	gooix/Original-Teile Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG	C63 DTM	AMG 4.0l V8	1,125 kg
12	Daniel Juncadella	Petronas Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG	C63 DTM	AMG 4.0l V8	1,125 kg
13	António Félix da Costa	BMW Team Schnitzer	BMW	M4 DTM	P66 4.0l V8	1,107.5 kg
16	Timo Glock	BMW Team MTEK	BMW	M4 DTM	P66 4.0l V8	1,105 kg
17	Miguel Molina	Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline	Audi	RS5 DTM 15	Audi 4.0l V8	1,125 kg
18	Augusto Farfus	BMW Team RBM	BMW	M4 DTM	P66 4.0l V8	1,107.5kg
22	Lucas Auer	Euronics/BWT Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG	C63 DTM	AMG 4.0l V8	1,122.5 kg
27	Adrien Tambay	Audi Sport Team Abt	Audi	RS5 DTM 15	Audi 4.0l V8	1,125 kg
31	Tom Blomqvist	BMW Team RBM	BMW	M4 DTM	P66 4.0l V8	1,105 kg
36	Maxime Martin	BMW Team RMG	BMW	M4 DTM	P66 4.0l V8	1,105 kg
48	Edoardo Mortara	Audi Sport Team Abt	Audi	RS5 DTM 15	Audi 4.0l V8	1,135 kg
51	Nico Müller	Audi Sport Team Rosberg	Audi	RS5 DTM 15	Audi 4.0l V8	1,127.5 kg
53	Jamie Green	Audi Sport Team Rosberg	Audi	RS5 DTM 15	Audi 4.0l V8	1,130 kg
77	Martin Tomczyk	BMW Team Schnitzer	BMW	M4 DTM	P66 4.0l V8	1,105 kg
84	Maximilian Götz	Petronas Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG	C63 DTM	AMG 4.0l V8	1,120 kg
93	Antonio Giovinazzi	Audi Sport Team Phoenix	Audi	RS5 DTM 15	Audi 4.0l V8	1,137.5 kg
94	Pascal Wehrlein	gooix/Original-Teile Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG	C63 DTM	AMG 4.0l V8	1,127.5 kg
99	Mike Rockenfeller	Audi Sport Team Phoenix	Audi	RS5 DTM 15	Audi 4.0l V8	1,135 kg
Source:

Qualifying

Qualifying would be staged late in the morning ahead of the race, with all twenty-four drivers taking to the circuit for a twenty minute session. Each driver would then be allowed to complete as many laps as they liked, with the final order based on each driver's time.

Report

A warm Sunday morning greeted the field for the second qualifying session of the weekend, which promised faster times and ever smaller gaps across the field. This was proved by Mike Rockenfeller who claimed pole with a 1:28.540 lap time, just 0.038s faster than Mattias Ekström in second. Unfortunately for Ekström, he had to serve a three place grid penalty after causing a collision on Saturday, meaning he dropped behind Bruno Spengler, Jamie Green and Maxime Martin.

Pascal Wehrlein's victory on Saturday, and the subsequent pace of the Mercedes caused many to predict that the three pointed start would do well in qualifying. However, the ultra small margins between the cars in Moscow meant that Gary Paffett was their best place driver in seventh and their only car in the top ten. Wehrlein was just two tenths off of Rockenfeller's time, but was left down in eleventh on the grid.

With just over eight tenths of a second covering all 24 cars on the grid, the margin for error was nil, as Martin Tomczyk qualified dead last for BMW, sharing the back row with Christian Vietoris. Debutante Antonio Giovinazzi improved on his Saturday pace to claim sixteenth, beating most of the Mercedes entries, with three quarters of the field separated by just half a second.

Post-Qualifying

The final qualifying result for the 2015 Moscow Raceway Race 2 are outlined below:

2015 Moscow Raceway Race 2 Qualifying Result
Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Time	Gap	Ave. Speed	Grid
1st	99	Mike Rockenfeller	Audi Team Phoenix	1:28.540	—	159.832 km/h	1
2nd*	5	Mattias Ekström	Audi Team Abt Sportsline	1:28.578	+0.038s	159.764 km/h	5*
3rd	7	Bruno Spengler	BMW Team MTEK	1:28.580	+0.040s	159.760 km/h	2
4th	36	Maxime Martin	BMW Team RMG	1:28.587	+0.047s	159.748 km/h	3
5th	53	Jamie Green	Audi Team Rosberg	1:28.592	+0.052s	159.739 km/h	4
6th	51	Nico Müller	Audi Team Rosberg	1:28.592	+0.052s	159.739 km/h	6
7th	2	Gary Paffett	ART Grand Prix Mercedes	1:28.632	+0.092s	159.666 km/h	7
8th	31	Tom Blomqvist	BMW Team RBM	1:28.650	+0.110s	159.634 km/h	8
9th	18	Augusto Farfus	BMW Team RBM	1:28.658	+0.118s	159.620 km/h	9
10th	1	Marco Wittmann	BMW Team RMG	1:28.686	+0.146s	159.569 km/h	10
11th	94	Pascal Wehrlein	gooix/OT Mercedes-AMG	1:28.739	+0.199s	159.474 km/h	11
12th	12	Daniel Juncadella	Petronas Mercedes-AMG	1:28.772	+0.232s	159.415 km/h	12
13th	48	Edoardo Mortara	Audi Team Abt	1:28.777	+0.237s	159.406 km/h	13
14th	16	Timo Glock	BMW Team MTEK	1:28.881	+0.341s	159.219 km/h	14
15th	22	Lucas Auer	ART Grand Prix Mercedes	1:28.896	+0.356s	159.192 km/h	15
16th	93	Antonio Giovinazzi	Audi Team Phoenix	1:28.913	+0.373s	159.162 km/h	16
17th	6	Robert Wickens	Silberpfeil Mercedes-AMG	1:28.970	+0.430s	159.060 km/h	17
18th	84	Maximilian Götz	Petronas Mercedes-AMG	1:28.978	+0.438s	159.046 km/h	18
19th	17	Miguel Molina	Audi Team Abt Sportsline	1:29.050	+0.510s	158.917 km/h	19
20th	27	Adrien Tambay	Audi Team Abt	1:29.059	+0.519s	158.901 km/h	20
21st	13	António Félix da Costa	BMW Team Schnitzer	1:29.109	+0.569s	158.812 km/h	21
22nd	3	Paul di Resta	Silberpfeil Mercedes-AMG	1:29.156	+0.616s	158.728 km/h	22
23rd	8	Christian Vietoris	gooix/OT Mercedes-AMG	1:29.261	+0.721s	158.541 km/h	23
24th	77	Martin Tomczyk	BMW Team Schnitzer	1:29.408	+0.868s	158.281 km/h	24
Source:

• Bold indicates a driver's best/qualifying time.
• * Ekström serves a three place grid penalty for causing a collision in race one.

Grid

The starting grid for the 2015 Moscow Raceway Race 2 is outlined below:

		8	Christian Vietoris	1:29.261			13	António Félix da Costa	1:29.109			17	Miguel Molina	1:29.050			6	Robert Wickens	1:28.970			22	Lucas Auer	1:28.896			48	Edoardo Mortara	1:28.777			94	Pascal Wehrlein	1:28.739			18	Augusto Farfus	1:28.658			2	Gary Paffett	1:28.632			5	Mattias Ekström	1:28.578			36	Maxime Martin	1:28.587			99	Mike Rockenfeller	1:28.540
	77	Martin Tomczyk		1:29.408		3	Paul di Resta		1:29.156		27	Adrien Tambay		1:29.059		84	Maximilian Götz		1:28.978		93	Antonio Giovinazzi		1:28.913		16	Timo Glock		1:28.881		12	Daniel Juncadella		1:28.772		1	Marco Wittmann		1:28.686		31	Tom Blomqvist		1:28.650		51	Nico Müller		1:28.592		53	Jamie Green		1:28.592		7	Bruno Spengler		1:28.580
																				File:GIO 15 Livery.png

Race

Like the morning quali session, the afternoon on Sunday was dry and warm as 24,000 fans arrived at the circuit, optimistic for another exciting race around the Moscow Raceway. With Mike Rockenfeller on pole, at the circuit where his last victory came from in 2013, many thought that the German was favourite to win, if he could fend off Bruno Spengler.

Report

It was an even start from the front row men, as Spengler got alongside Rockenfeller into the first corner, before attempting to run the German off the track. Rocky, however, bit back, and snatched the lead through turn two, sweeping across the front of the BMW to take the inside line. Further down, a few drivers scattered across the outside of the first corner to avoid making contact, Antonio Giovinazzi running the widest of all to fall to the very back of the field.

With DRS set to be activated on lap four, Rockenfeller needed to get a second ahead of Spengler in the opening stages to give himself the best opportunity of winning in the race. And, by the start of lap five, he had done so, with Spengler left to fend off Jamie Green, who had been hounding him since the second corner of the first lap. At the back, António Félix da Costa was handed a drive-through penalty for causing a collision, after replays showed that he and Giovinazzi had made contact that had resulted in the Italian taking an unusual line through the first corner.

Pascal Wehrlein, Championship leader, found himself in a duel with Edoardo Mortara throughout the first half of the race, with the Italian successful in defence. Wehrlein was successful when he tried the same move on Mortara that he had used to pass Marco Wittmann in Saturday's race, but was left frustrated as the Audi managed to out-drag him into the first corner. Up ahead, Wittmann was launching a wave of unsuccessful attacks at Nico Müller for seventh, with the pit window opening after the 20 minute mark, eleven laps having been completed.

Green was the first man into the pits, but he almost collided with Augusto Farfus on the way out, being released from his pitbox right into the path of the Brazilian. That also delayed Wehrlein, who ultimately lost out to Mortara, again, as a result, with Green going unpunished. Robert Wickens, meanwhile, was slapped with a drive-through for speeding in the pitlane, before being referred to the stewards after he was found to be travelling down the pit lane at 104 km/h, significantly faster than the 65 km/h limit.

Lucas Auer ran in the lead for a while, becoming the last man to stop after being mugged by Mattias Ekström, Maxime Martin and Green in the final corner as their three way duel for the final podium spot rushed past. Wehrlein, meanwhile, was beginning a fight back from his pit delay, weaving past Tom Blomqvist with ten minutes left to take tenth, before beginning a charge to catch Muller and Mortara in eighth and ninth.

With eight minutes to go, Ekström was desperately trying to find a way past Martin for third, as Wehrlein's charge only needed to carry him past Muller and Mortara and he would remain in the lead of the Championship. The Swede attempted to sling a move down the inside of the Belgian into turn nine, where he collided with Timo Glock in race one, but thought better of it. That little piece of experience paid off, as he then dived down the inside of the BMW into the final corner, snatching third and the Championship lead.

The closing stages saw Wehrlein's charge begin to falter, with the young German having to settle for tenth place at the finish. Rockenfeller, meanwhile, continued almost forgotten at the front to take his first win in two years for Audi, ahead of Spengler and Ekström. Martin was successful in defending fourth place from Green, while Gary Paffett ended a quiet race as best of the Mercedes in sixth.

Results

The final classification of the 2015 Moscow Raceway Race 2 is displayed below:

2015 Moscow Raceway Race 2 Result
Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Laps	Race Time	Fastest lap	Pts.
1st	99	Mike Rockenfeller	Audi Team Phoenix	41	1:02:14.818	1:29.870	25
2nd	7	Bruno Spengler	BMW Team MTEK	41	+4.132s	1:30.007	18
3rd	5	Mattias Ekström	Audi Team Abt Sportsline	41	+9.204s	1:29.892	15
4th	36	Maxime Martin	BMW Team RMG	41	+11.789s	1:29.968	12
5th	53	Jamie Green	Audi Team Rosberg	41	+12.585s	1:30.040	10
6th	2	Gary Paffett	ART Grand Prix Mercedes	41	+14.393s	1:30.203	8
7th	1	Marco Wittmann	BMW Team RMG	41	+16.593s	1:30.086	6
8th	48	Edoardo Mortara	Audi Team Abt Sportsline	41	+18.050s	1:30.130	4
9th	51	Nico Müller	Audi Team Rosberg	41	+18.548s	1:30.049	2
10th	94	Pascal Wehrlein	gooix/OT Mercedes-AMG	41	+18.810s	1:30.015	1
11th	18	Augusto Farfus	BMW Team RBM	41	+24.207s	1:30.253
12th	31	Tom Blomqvist	BMW Team RBM	41	+24.939s	1:30.374
13th	12	Daniel Juncadella	Petronas Mercedes-AMG	41	+25.237s	1:30.392
14th	17	Miguel Molina	Audi Team Abt Sportsline	41	+25.686s	1:30.300
15th	3	Paul di Resta	Silberpfeil Mercedes-AMG	41	+27.253s	1:30.430
16th	27	Adrien Tambay	Audi Team Abt	41	+32.423s	1:30.319
17th	16	Timo Glock	BMW Team MTEK	41	+33.412s	1:30.369
18th	84	Maximilian Götz	Petronas Mercedes-AMG	41	+36.718s	1:30.558
19th	22	Lucas Auer	ART Grand Prix Mercedes	41	+36.947s	1:29.979
20th	8	Christian Vietoris	gooix/OT Mercedes-AMG	41	+43.030s	1:30.775
21st	93	Antonio Giovinazzi	Audi Team Phoenix	41	+53.048s	1:30.721
22nd	13	António Félix da Costa	BMW Team Schnitzer	41	+1:15.152	1:30.963
23rd	6	Robert Wickens	Silberpfeil Mercedes-AMG	41	+1:25.033s	1:30.644
Ret	77	Martin Tomczyk	BMW Team Schnitzer	18	Damage	1:31.775
Source:

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

Milestones

• Fifth pole position for Mike Rockenfeller.
• Rockenfeller claimed his fourth career victory.

Standings

Mattias Ekström continued to lead the Championship having briefly lost it to Pascal Wehrlein on Saturday after the young German's victory. Wehrlein, for his part, was now second, swapping places with Edoardo Mortara, with Jamie Green dragging himself back into serious contention. With 23 points covering the top four, the final part of the Championship was set to be ultra-competitive between them. Bruno Spengler led the Bavarian contingent, and could be considered an outside contender for the title in fifth.

gooix/OT Mercedes-AMG led the Teams' Championship into the final third of the Championship, leading nearest challengers Audi Team Abt Sportsline by 23 points. They represented the best of the Mercedes and Audi teams, although it was the Ingolstadt marque that led the Brands' Championship, despite losing their points from race two in Austria. BMW were almost 50 points off the Mercs, with BMW Team RMG leading their charge in fourth.

2015 Drivers' Championship Pos. Name Pts. +/- 1st Mattias Ekström 126 ▲1 2nd Pascal Wehrlein 120 ▼1 3rd Edoardo Mortara 110 ◄0 4th Jamie Green 103 ◄0 5th Bruno Spengler 85 ▲2 6th Marco Wittmann 75 ▼1 7th Gary Paffett 75 ▼1 8th Mike Rockenfeller 67 ▲4 9th Robert Wickens 57 ▼1 10th Christian Vietoris 56 ▼1 11th António Félix da Costa 44 ▼1 12th Maxime Martin 44 ▲2 13th Augusto Farfus 43 ▼2 14th Paul di Resta 40 ▼1 15th Miguel Molina 27 ◄0 16th Nico Müller 26 ▲1 17th Timo Glock 25 ▼1 18th Daniel Juncadella 24 ◄0 19th Martin Tomczyk 20 ◄0 20th Timo Scheider 16 ◄0 21st Lucas Auer 10 ◄0 22nd Tom Blomqvist 10 ◄0 23rd Maximilian Götz 6 ◄0 24th Adrien Tambay 3 ◄0 25th Antonio Giovinazzi 0 ◄0

2015 Teams' Championship Pos. Name Pts. +/- 1st gooix/OT Mercedes-AMG 176 ◄0 2nd Audi Team Abt Sportsline 153 ◄0 3rd Audi Team Rosberg 129 ◄0 4th BMW Team RMG 119 ▲1 5th Audi Team Abt 113 ▼1 6th BMW Team MTEK 110 ▲1 7th Silberpfeil Mercedes-AMG 97 ▼1 8th ART Grand Prix Mercedes 85 ◄0 9th Audi Team Phoenix 83 ▲1 10th BMW Team Schnitzer 64 ▼1 11th BMW Team RBM 53 ◄0 12th Petronas Mercedes-AMG 30 ◄0 2015 Manufacturers' Championship Pos. Name Pts. +/- 1st Audi 416 ▲1 2nd Mercedes-AMG 388 ▼1 3rd BMW 321 ◄0

Only point scoring drivers and teams are shown.

References

Videos and Images:

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