2015 Nürburgring Race 2

2015 Nürburgring Race 2
The short circuit at the Nürburgring
Race Information
Date	27 September 2015
No.	195
Event	DTM Nürburg 2015
Location	Nürburgring Nürburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany
Format	60 min + 1 Lap
Lap length	3.629 km (2.255 mi)
Distance	43 laps / 156.047 km (96.963 mi)
Qualifying Result
Pole Sitter	Miguel Molina
Team	Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline
Time	1:21.732
Fastest Lap
Driver	Miguel Molina
Team	Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline
Time	1:23.417 on lap 16
Race Result
First	Second	Third
Miguel Molina	Paul di Resta	Bruno Spengler
Winner Team	Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline
Time	1:02:00.166
Race Guide
Previous		Next
2015 Nürburgring Race 1		2015 Hockenheim Finale Race 1

The 2015 Nürburgring Race 2, otherwise known as the DTM Nürburg 2015 Race 2, was the sixteenth race of the 2015 DMSB Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters Championship, staged at the Nürburgring in Nürburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany on 27 September 2015. The race would see Miguel Molina sweep to his maiden DTM victory, as Pascal Wehrlein inched closer to the Championship.

Qualifying for the second race had seen Molina steal the show, sweeping to pole position for Audi by two tenths from BMW's Tom Blomqvist. Jamie Green was next up in third ahead of Paul di Resta, the first of the Mercedes, while Wehrlein was the best placed of the major title contenders in ninth.

Unfortunately for Green his hopes of reigniting his title ambitions were blow right at the start, for he would stall on the grid. The rest of the field therefore had to dance around the stalled #53 Audi, while Molina and Blomqvist duelled on the brakes for the lead into turn one, with the Spaniard ultimately emerging ahead.

Indeed, having started ahead of the stranded Audi, those two would escape the chaos that was to emerge behind, for Marco Wittmann would try to jink around his teammate Maxime Martin, only to swipe the side of Robert Wickens. Wickens was sent sliding into Timo Scheider, with that secondary contact causing terminal damage to the #6 Mercedes, and leaving a frustrated Scheider in the gravel.

Further around Wittmann would spin Gary Paffett to the back of the field, moments before the Safety Car was scrambled to allow Scheider's car to be removed. When the race resumed Molina was able to escape into the lead, leaving Blomqvist to fend off the attentions of di Resta.

di Resta would, however, have to wait until DRS came on-line to move past his compatriot, as behind Wehrlein vaulted past Maximilian Götz and Augusto Farfus. Daniel Juncadella, meanwhile, would pass Mattias Ekström to nudge the Swede out of the top ten, before the first drivers made their way into the pits once they opened at the twenty-minute mark.

The stops would not affect the order at the head of the field, with Molina retaining a healthy lead over di Resta, while Spengler jumped Blomqvist. It was further back where the order had shuffled, with Wehrlein having slipped back down behind Götz and Farfus, while Ekström had dropped behind Timo Glock.

The second half of the race would be about the progress of the title pretenders, with Wehrlein pulling a succession of moves to climb from eighth to fifth, before running out of time to catch Blomqvist. Ekström, meanwhile, would attempt to follow Rockenfeller up the order, although the Swede ultimately got caught behind a very defensive Juncadella who would cause Ekström to remain outside of the top ten.

Out front, meanwhile, Molina ran unopposed to the chequered flag, seven and a half seconds clear of di Resta in second. Spengler was next up in third ahead of Blomqvist, while fifth for Wehrlein meant he could win the Championship with a race to spare in Hockenheim. Götz was next up ahead of Rockenfeller, Farfus and Tomczyk, while Juncadella kept Ekström at bay to the flag to secure tenth.

Background

Pascal Wehrlein remained at the head of the title hunt as the first day of action at the Nürburgring, and had seen his advantage grow to 27 points. Edoardo Mortara, meanwhile, had risen to second on 128, while Mattias Ekström had dropped to third, a point behind the Italian. Jamie Green was next up ahead of Marco Wittmann, with the latter level on points with Bruno Spengler but considered ahead of the Canadian courtesy of his race victory earlier in the season.

In the Teams' Championship it was gooix/Original-Teile Mercedes-AMG whom led the charge, and had increased their tally to 211 points for the campaign. BMW Team RMG had climbed to second, 36 off the lead, while sister team BMW Team MTEK had slipped to third on 160. BMW, meanwhile, had retained the initiative in the Manufacturers' Championship, while Mercedes-AMG had moved ahead of Audi.

Entry List

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

2015 Nürburgring Race 2 Entry List
No.	Name	Entrant	Constructor	Chassis	Engine	Weight
1	Marco Wittmann	BMW Team RMG	BMW	M4 DTM	P66 4.0l V8	1,117.5 kg
2	Gary Paffett	Euronics/BWT Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG	C63 DTM	AMG 4.0l V8	1,127.5 kg
3	Paul di Resta	Silberpfeil Energy Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG	C63 DTM	AMG 4.0l V8	1,120 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	1,122.5 kg
7	Bruno Spengler	BMW Team MTEK	BMW	M4 DTM	P66 4.0l V8	1,115 kg
8	Christian Vietoris	gooix/Original-Teile Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG	C63 DTM	AMG 4.0l V8	1,122.5 kg
10	Timo Scheider	Audi Sport Team Phoenix	Audi	RS5 DTM 15	Audi 4.0l V8	1,115 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	1,117.5 kg
16	Timo Glock	BMW Team MTEK	BMW	M4 DTM	P66 4.0l V8	1,115 kg
17	Miguel Molina	Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline	Audi	RS5 DTM 15	Audi 4.0l V8	1,115 kg
18	Augusto Farfus	BMW Team RBM	BMW	M4 DTM	P66 4.0l V8	1,117.5 kg
22	Lucas Auer	Euronics/BWT Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG	C63 DTM	AMG 4.0l V8	1,120 kg
27	Adrien Tambay	Audi Sport Team Abt	Audi	RS5 DTM 15	Audi 4.0l V8	1,112.5 kg
31	Tom Blomqvist	BMW Team RBM	BMW	M4 DTM	P66 4.0l V8	1,115 kg
36	Maxime Martin	BMW Team RMG	BMW	M4 DTM	P66 4.0l V8	1,112.5 kg
48	Edoardo Mortara	Audi Sport Team Abt	Audi	RS5 DTM 15	Audi 4.0l V8	1,127.5 kg
51	Nico Müller	Audi Sport Team Rosberg	Audi	RS5 DTM 15	Audi 4.0l V8	1,120 kg
53	Jamie Green	Audi Sport Team Rosberg	Audi	RS5 DTM 15	Audi 4.0l V8	1,125 kg
77	Martin Tomczyk	BMW Team Schnitzer	BMW	M4 DTM	P66 4.0l V8	1,112.5 kg
84	Maximilian Götz	Petronas Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG	C63 DTM	AMG 4.0l V8	1,117.5 kg
94	Pascal Wehrlein	gooix/Original-Teile Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG	C63 DTM	AMG 4.0l V8	1,130 kg
99	Mike Rockenfeller	Audi Sport Team Phoenix	Audi	RS5 DTM 15	Audi 4.0l V8	1,127.5 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

As with the majority of the season, the second quali session of the weekend produced a completely different result as Miguel Molina claimed his second pole of the season. With a margin of two tenths in the Spaniard's favour, it was an impressive display by Molina as he bested rookie Tom Blomqvist and Championship outsider Jamie Green to pole. Green would need to win the race to hold any realistic chance of the title, with the rest of the title contenders struggling.

Pascal Wehrlein, Championship leader, was having to wrestle the heaviest car in the field around the Nürburgring short circuit, and so could only manage to take ninth place on the grid. That said, he was in a far better place than his closest two rivals, as Edoardo Mortara tumbled to twentieth having been unable to match his Saturday pace. Mattias Ekström, meanwhile, was once again down in seventeenth, and would need to climb past Wehrlein to prevent the youngster from pulling even further ahead.

At the very back of the field would be Gary Paffett, who blew an engine in the Warm-Up in the morning and missed the session. Martin Tomczyk, who didn't run at all on Saturday, only managed a handful of laps and could only set a time two seconds slower than Molina. Audi also looked to be struggling as a whole, with only three of their cars in the top half of the field.

Post-Qualifying

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

2015 Nürburgring Race 2 Qualifying Result
Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Time	Gap	Ave. Speed	Grid
1st	17	Miguel Molina	Audi Team Abt Sportsline	1:21.732	—	159.844 km/h	1
2nd	31	Tom Blomqvist	BMW Team RBM	1:21.939	+0.207s	159.440 km/h	2
3rd	53	Jamie Green	Audi Team Rosberg	1:22.021	+0.289s	159.281 km/h	3
4th	3	Paul di Resta	gooix/OT Mercedes-AMG	1:22.046	+0.314s	159.232 km/h	4
5th	7	Bruno Spengler	BMW Team MTEK	1:22.049	+0.317s	159.226 km/h	5
6th	18	Augusto Farfus	BMW Team RBM	1:22.086	+0.354s	159.155 km/h	6
7th	6	Robert Wickens	Silberpfeil Mercedes-AMG	1:22.096	+0.364s	159.135 km/h	7
8th	84	Maximilian Götz	Petronas Mercedes-AMG	1:22.217	+0.485s	158.901 km/h	8
9th	94	Pascal Wehrlein	gooix/OT Mercedes-AMG	1:22.219	+0.487s	158.897 km/h	9
10th	1	Marco Wittmann	BMW Team RMG	1:22.239	+0.507s	158.858 km/h	10
11th	16	Timo Glock	BMW Team MTEK	1:22.295	+0.563s	158.750 km/h	11
12th	99	Mike Rockenfeller	Audi Team Phoenix	1:22.301	+0.569s	158.739 km/h	12
13th	10	Timo Scheider	Audi Team Phoenix	1:22.310	+0.578s	158.721 km/h	13
14th	12	Daniel Juncadella	Petronas Mercedes-AMG	1:22.312	+0.580s	158.718 km/h	14
15th	22	Lucas Auer	ART Grand Prix Mercedes	1:22.317	+0.585s	158.708 km/h	15
16th	36	Maxime Martin	BMW Team RMG	1:22.344	+0.612s	158.656 km/h	16
17th	5	Mattias Ekström	Audi Team Abt Sportsline	1:22.405	+0.673s	158.538 km/h	17
18th	13	António Félix da Costa	BMW Team Schnitzer	1:22.410	+0.678s	158.529 km/h	18
19th	8	Christian Vietoris	gooix/OT Mercedes-AMG	1:22.417	+0.685s	158.515 km/h	19
20th	48	Edoardo Mortara	Audi Team Abt	1:22.474	+0.742s	158.406 km/h	20
21st	51	Nico Müller	Audi Team Rosberg	1:22.514	+0.782s	158.329 km/h	21
22nd	27	Adrien Tambay	Audi Team Abt	1:22.667	+0.935s	158.036 km/h	22
23rd	77	Martin Tomczyk	BMW Team Schnitzer	1:23.820	+2.088s	155.862 km/h	23
NC	2	Gary Paffett	ART Grand Prix Mercedes				24
Source:

• Bold indicates a driver's best/qualifying time.

Grid

The starting grid for the second race of the 2015 Nürburgring Race 2 meeting is shown below:

		77	Martin Tomczyk	1:23.820			51	Nico Müller	1:22.514			8	Christian Vietoris	1:22.417			5	Mattias Ekström	1:22.405			22	Lucas Auer	1:22.317			10	Timo Scheider	1:22.310			16	Timo Glock	1:22.295			94	Pascal Wehrlein	1:22.219			6	Robert Wickens	1:22.096			7	Bruno Spengler	1:22.049			53	Jamie Green	1:22.021			17	Miguel Molina	1:21.732
	2	Gary Paffett		—		27	Adrien Tambay		1:22.667		48	Edoardo Mortara		1:22.474		13	António Félix da Costa		1:22.410		36	Maxime Martin		1:22.344		12	Daniel Juncadella		1:22.312		99	Mike Rockenfeller		1:22.301		1	Marco Wittmann		1:22.239		84	Maximilian Götz		1:22.217		18	Augusto Farfus		1:22.086		3	Paul di Resta		1:22.046		31	Tom Blomqvist		1:21.939

Race

Unlike Saturday, Sunday had little threat of rain, meaning temperatures were up and so too was anticipation. Pascal Wehrlein had the potential to win the title if he could win the race with Mattias Ekström and Edoardo Mortara both failing to score. The chances of that happening were remote, however, with the youngster once again using the heaviest car, and starting down in ninth.

Report

Miguel Molina and Tom Blomqvist shot away at the start to battle for the lead into the first corner, as everyone else scattered around the stalled Jamie Green. The Brit's orange liveried Audi stalled, leaving him stranded in fourth place until he could get it moving at the very back of the field. That unmovable Audi had further consequences for the rest of the field, as cars fought for even less space into the braking zone for turn one.

Marco Wittmann tried to pull out of the tow of team mate Maxime Martin in order to get a better braking effect, only to rub against Robert Wickens. The Canadian, having just dived onto his brakes, was sent into a slide, and one which carried him into the side of Timo Scheider, who had had one of his best starts all season. Both spun to the outside of turn one, although the German was suffering from his familiar form of luck and ended his race after 20 seconds, beached in the gravel, as Wickens recovered to the pits.

Wittmann was reported to the stewards of the meeting a few laps later, after causing Gary Paffett to spin on the exit of turn four, the Brit having used his new engine to launch into the mid pack from dead last. The safety car made another appearance of the weekend to recover Scheider's stuck car, with Molina leading from Blomqvist and Bruno Spengler. Wickens limped into the pits to retire at the end of the lap, with the safety car coming in with five minutes gone.

Molina managed to get away from the field at the restart as Blomqvist came under pressure from di Resta from the moment the race restarted. Ekström battled his way into the top ten after Mike Rockenfeller pulled aside to let him past for tenth, while Paffett resumed his ultimately futile climb through the field from the back. Edoardo Mortara, meanwhile, was left to pick up the scraps at the tail end of the field, taking advantage of a lock up from Lucas Auer to climb into fifteenth.

Blomqvist finally succumbed to di Resta after DRS became active with ten minutes gone, while Ekström jumped ahead of Daniel Juncadella and Timo Glock after the two collided. Wehrlein was also on the move, taking Maximilian Götz and Augusto Farfus in short order, before Götz also found a way past the Brazilian a lap later. Juncadella, meanwhile, had suddenly appeared ahead of Ekström and was soon attacking Farfus for eighth, with the pit window opening with the majority of the top ten taking to the pits for fresh rubber.

The order of the race was turned upside down after the stops, with Wehrlein stuck behind Farfus in eighth, just two places ahead of Ekström, who was stuck behind Glock. Wehrlein was the first to find a way past his foe, pulling another dive into the chicane on the Brazilian to snatch seventh, with Götz and Juncadella running immediately ahead of him, and under orders to let him through. His move past Juncadella was a timely one, as Wehrlein was struggling under an assault from Mike Rockenfeller, who suddenly found an extra wide Spaniard in his path.

The final laps saw Mortara's race end after a desperate charge through the field to get into the points. He came up to the back of Glock with twenty minutes to go, but a clumsy move pushed both off track and damaged the Italian's car. Mortara was let off with a warning, while Glock's earlier incident with Juncadella saw him into the pits to serve a penalty. Mortara was also in, but to retire and inevitably fall further behind Wehrlein.

Juncadella finally fell to pressure from Rockenfeller, and was now being stalked by Ekström, who had dealt with Glock off camera. That said, the wide silver Mercedes that had greeted Rocky was now a gargantuan one in-front of Eky, who threw everything at the Spaniard to try to get past. A clumsy dive into the first corner almost earned him the place, but only succeeded in opening the door for Martin Tomczyk to pass the pair of them.

Molina, meanwhile, pounded on untroubled at the head of the field, and ultimately earned his maiden victory at the 67th attempt. He would be joined on the podium by Paul di Resta, whose fortune seemed to have turned after qualifying for the first race, and Bruno Spengler. Wehrlein ended the race in fifth to score ten points, and with Ekström's late demotion to eleventh, the German ended the day with a 37 point advantage in the Championship.

Results

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

2015 Nürburgring Race 2 Result
Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Laps	Race Time	Fastest lap	Pts.
1st	17	Miguel Molina	Audi Team Abt Sportsline	43	1:02:00.166	1:23.417	25
2nd	3	Paul di Resta	Silberpfeil Mercedes-AMG	43	+7.500s	1:23.804	18
3rd	7	Bruno Spengler	BMW Team MTEK	43	+8.791s	1:24.071	15
4th	31	Tom Blomqvist	BMW Team RBM	43	+19.824s	1:24.257	12
5th	94	Pascal Wehrlein	gooix/OT Mercedes-AMG	43	+25.581s	1:23.961	10
6th	84	Maximilian Götz	Petronas Mercedes-AMG	43	+26.326s	1:24.025	8
7th	99	Mike Rockenfeller	Audi Team Phoenix	43	+26.626s	1:24.264	6
8th	18	Augusto Farfus	BMW Team RBM	43	+34.305s	1:24.025	4
9th	77	Martin Tomczyk	BMW Team Schnitzer	43	+37.205s	1:24.126	2
10th	12	Daniel Juncadella	Petronas Mercedes-AMG	43	+38.059s	1:23.997	1
11th	5	Mattias Ekström	Audi Team Abt Sportsline	43	+38.848s	1:24.079
12th	27	Adrien Tambay	Audi Team Abt	43	+38.980s	1:23.750
13th	36	Maxime Martin	BMW Team RMG	43	+41.174s	1:24.446
14th	8	Christian Vietoris	gooix/OT Mercedes-AMG	43	+41.451s	1:24.486
15th	13	António Félix da Costa	BMW Team Schnitzer	43	+42.656s	1:24.242
16th	51	Nico Müller	Audi Team Rosberg	43	+43.205s	1:24.276
17th	53	Jamie Green	Audi Team Rosberg	43	+47.506s	1:24.312
18th	1	Marco Wittmann	BMW Team RMG	43	+1:02.291	1:24.315
19th	22	Lucas Auer	ART Grand Prix Mercedes	43	+1:05.555	1:24.146
20th	16	Timo Glock	BMW Team MTEK	43	+1:11.458	1:24.430
Ret	48	Edoardo Mortara	Audi Team Abt	28	Damage	1:24.168
Ret	2	Gary Paffett	ART Grand Prix Mercedes	8	Engine	1:25.988
Ret	6	Robert Wickens	Silberpfeil Mercedes-AMG	1	Damage	—
Ret	10	Timo Scheider	Audi Team Phoenix	0	Accident	—
Source:

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

Milestones

• Maiden win for Miguel Molina.

Standings

A poor weekend for Edoardo Mortara and Mattias Ekström handed the advantage to Pascal Wehrlein who headed to the season finale with a 37 point advantage. Jamie Green was now down to fifth and out of the title fight, despite having won three of the four opening races and had the most races of any driver. Bruno Spengler overtook him for fourth, but had a 46 point deficit to Wehrlein with just 50 remaining.

gooix/Original-Teile Mercedes-AMG headed into the final race weekend of the season with a 40 point lead in the Teams' Championship, as Mercedes moved into second in the Brands Championship. BMW's late season charge meant they continued to lead the Championship, with two of their teams in the top four. Like Green, Audi seemed to be stumbling over the line, although the weight balance would be in their favour in Hockenheim.

2015 Drivers' Championship Pos. Name Pts. +/- 1st Pascal Wehrlein 165 ◄0 2nd Edoardo Mortara 128 ◄0 3rd Mattias Ekström 127 ◄0 4th Bruno Spengler 119 ▲2 5th Jamie Green 107 ▼1 6th Marco Wittmann 104 ▼1 7th Gary Paffett 87 ◄0 8th Augusto Farfus 77 ◄0 9th António Félix da Costa 73 ◄0 10th Mike Rockenfeller 73 ▲1 11th Maxime Martin 71 ▼1 12th Paul di Resta 66 ▲3 13th Robert Wickens 61 ▼1 14th Timo Glock 56 ▼1 15th Christian Vietoris 56 ▼1 16th Miguel Molina 54 ▲1 17th Tom Blomqvist 53 ▼1 18th Martin Tomczyk 26 ▲2 19th Daniel Juncadella 26 ◄0 20th Nico Müller 26 ▼2 21st Maximilian Götz 24 ▲2 22nd Lucas Auer 18 ▼1 23rd Timo Scheider 16 ▼1 24th Adrien Tambay 3 ◄0 25th Antonio Giovinazzi 0 ◄0

2015 Teams' Championship Pos. Name Pts. +/- 1st gooix/OT Mercedes-AMG 221 ◄0 2nd Audi Team Abt Sportsline 181 ▲2 3rd BMW Team RMG 175 ▼1 4th BMW Team MTEK 175 ▼1 5th Audi Team Rosberg 133 ◄0 6th Audi Team Abt 131 ◄0 7th BMW Team RBM 130 ◄0 8th Silberpfeil Mercedes-AMG 127 ▲1 9th ART Grand Prix Mercedes 105 ▼1 10th BMW Team Schnitzer 99 ◄0 11th Audi Team Phoenix 89 ◄0 12th Petronas Mercedes-AMG 50 ◄0 2015 Manufacturers' Championship Pos. Name Pts. +/- 1st BMW 554 ◄0 2nd Mercedes-AMG 503 ◄0 3rd Audi 472 ◄0

Only point scoring drivers and teams are shown.

References

Videos and Images:

References: