2015 Spielberg Race 1

2015 Spielberg Race 1
The Red Bull Ring was unchanged in 2015.
Race Information
Date	1 August 2015
No.	188
Event	DTM Spielberg 2015
Location	Red Bull Ring Spielberg, Styria, Austria
Format	40 min + 1 Lap
Lap length	4.326 km (2.688 mi)
Distance	29 laps / 125.454 km (77.954 mi)
Qualifying Result
Pole Sitter	Edoardo Mortara
Team	Audi Sport Team Abt
Time	1:24.714
Fastest Lap
Driver	Edoardo Mortara
Team	Audi Sport Team Abt
Time	1:25.632 on lap 10
Race Result
First	Second	Third
Edoardo Mortara	Pascal Wehrlein	Paul di Resta
Winner Team	Audi Sport Team Abt
Time	41:41.536
Race Guide
Previous		Next
2015 Zandvoort Race 2		2015 Spielberg Race 2

The 2015 Spielberg Race 1, formally known as the DTM Spielberg 2015 Race 2 was the ninth race of the 2015 DMSB Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters Championship, staged at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Styria, Austria on 1 August 2015. The race, which was the third to be held outside of the Germany, would see Edoardo Mortara stake his claim for the Championship with an impressive victory.

Qualifying had seen Mortara sweep to pole position, beating Audi stablemate and Championship leader Jamie Green by almost two tenths of a second. Pascal Wehrlein and Paul di Resta would then share the second row for Mercedes, while Augusto Farfus claimed fifth to lead the BMW charge.

The start of the race saw Green burst away from second on the grid to claim the lead, while Mortara slipped into second. The Italian duly denied the two Mercedes of Wehrlein and di Resta the chance to challenge into the first corner, while behind Christian Vietoris elbowed his way past Farfus for fifth.

The rest of the opening lap proved to be unusually clean, leaving all of the drama for the start of the second tour. Indeed, on the run out of turn one Green's Audi would slow dramatically after a gearbox failure, resulting in the field scattering around the limping #53 Audi.

With that Mortara was away, setting a succession of fastest laps to establish a lead, while di Resta had slipped ahead of Wehrlein as they jinked to avoid Green. Behind, the order would soon settle down, with most of the field waiting for DRS to come on-line at the start of lap four.

Indeed, Wehrlein would use DRS to pass di Resta almost as soon as it was activated, while Mattias Ekström slipped his #5 Audi ahead of Gary Paffett in an identical manoeuvre. Further back Adrien Tambay pulled a double move on Mike Rockenfeller and Bruno Spengler, while Martin Tomczyk and Robert Wickens retired with mechanical troubles.

Out front, meanwhile, Mortara eased his pace to preserve his tyres, allowing Wehrlein to steadily close the gap as the race wore on. Indeed, as the race entered its final throes the #94 Mercedes was glued to the tail of the #48 Audi, with Wehrlein weaving around in Mortara's mirrors, albeit without forcing a move.

With that the race was run, with Mortara sweeping across the line to claim victory as Wehrlein failed to really challenge. di Resta was a lonely third to complete the podium ahead of Vietoris, while Ekström battled his way up to fifth with the aid of DRS. Farfus was next up ahead of Paffett and Rockenfeller, while Marco Wittmann and Tambay completed the scorers.

Background

With no major news stories emerging in the break between Zandvoort and the Red Bull Ring, attention was focused on the Championship, as Jamie Green dropped points in both races in the Netherlands. Mattias Ekström and Pascal Wehrlein closed to within five points as a result, with Edoardo Mortara sitting in fourth, just ahead of Robert Wickens. BMW had their best weekend in Zandvoort, as Bruno Spengler, Marco Wittmann and António Félix da Costa shot up into the top half of the table.

HWA left the Netherlands still in the lead of the Teams' Championship, after Mercedes were overhauled by the dominant BMWs at Zandvoort. That said, the Bavarian marque's best team was still only in fourth, behind two Audi teams in Audi Team Abt Sportsline and Audi Team Rosberg. Petronas Mercedes-AMG were at the foot of the table, with Maximilian Götz the only driver without any points at all.

Entry List

The full entry list for the 2015 Spielberg Race 1 is displayed below:

2015 Spielberg Race 1 Entry List
No.	Name	Entrant	Constructor	Chassis	Engine	Weight
1	Marco Wittmann	BMW Team RMG	BMW	M4 DTM	P66 4.0l V8	1,115 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	1,115 kg
8	Christian Vietoris	gooix/Original-Teile Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG	C63 DTM	AMG 4.0l V8	1,125 kg
10	Timo Scheider	Audi Sport Team Phoenix	Audi	RS5 DTM 15	Audi 4.0l V8	1,120 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	1,115 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	1,120 kg
18	Augusto Farfus	BMW Team RBM	BMW	M4 DTM	P66 4.0l V8	1,115 kg
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	1,117.5 kg
31	Tom Blomqvist	BMW Team RBM	BMW	M4 DTM	P66 4.0l V8	1,112.5 kg
36	Maxime Martin	BMW Team RMG	BMW	M4 DTM	P66 4.0l V8	1,115 kg
48	Edoardo Mortara	Audi Sport Team Abt	Audi	RS5 DTM 15	Audi 4.0l V8	1,125 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	1,110 kg
84	Maximilian Götz	Petronas Mercedes-AMG	Mercedes-AMG	C63 DTM	AMG 4.0l V8	1,120 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	1,125 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

On Saturday it proved to be the Ingolstadt squad that proved to have the pace, as Edoardo Mortara and Jamie Green secured an all Audi front row, with Mortara the better by almost two tenths. It was not all Audi's way however, as Mercedes claimed half of the top ten spots, with BMW taking one.

Indeed, their charge would be headed by Augusto Farfus, who was beaten by the first two Mercedes cars of Pascal Wehrlein and Paul di Resta. They would start the race third and fourth respectively, with Farfus sharing row three with Christian Vietoris in the third HWA entered car. Robert Wickens and Gary Paffett completed the quintet for the three pointed star, with Mattias Ekström and Mike Rockenfeller rounding off the top ten.

With Marco Wittmann the only other BMW backed driver in the top half of the field, the back of the grid was largely populated by Bavarian products, although Lucas Auer of Mercedes had the ignominy of being slowest of the session. With under a second covering the entire field, however, points were not out of the realm of possibility for any driver, with no changes to the grid order post-qualifying.

Post Qualifying

The final qualifying result for the 2015 Spielberg Race 1 are outlined below:

2015 Spielberg Race 1 Qualifying Result
Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Time	Gap	Ave. Speed	Grid
1st	48	Edoardo Mortara	Audi Team Abt Sportsline	1:24.714	—	183.837 km/h	1
2nd	53	Jamie Green	Audi Team Rosberg	1:24.907	+0.193s	183.419 km/h	2
3rd	94	Pascal Wehrlein	gooix/OT Mercedes-AMG	1:24.926	+0.212s	183.378 km/h	3
4th	3	Paul di Resta	Silberpfeil Mercedes-AMG	1:25.006	+0.292s	183.205 km/h	4
5th	18	Augusto Farfus	BMW Team RBM	1:25.018	+0.304s	183.180 km/h	5
6th	8	Christian Vietoris	gooix/OT Mercedes-AMG	1:25.134	+0.420s	182.930 km/h	6
7th	6	Robert Wickens	Silberpfeil Mercedes-AMG	1:25.146	+0.432s	182.904 km/h	7
8th	2	Gary Paffett	ART Grand Prix Mercedes	1:25.189	+0.475s	182.812 km/h	8
9th	5	Mattias Ekström	Audi Team Abt Sportsline	1:25.191	+0.477s	182.808 km/h	9
10th	99	Mike Rockenfeller	Audi Team Phoenix	1:25.214	+0.500s	182.758 km/h	10
11th	27	Adrien Tambay	Audi Team Abt Sportsline	1:25.292	+0.578s	182.591 km/h	11
12th	1	Marco Wittmann	BMW Team RMG	1:25.295	+0.581s	182.585 km/h	12
13th	13	António Félix da Costa	BMW Team Schnitzer	1:25.313	+0.599s	182.546 km/h	13
14th	51	Nico Müller	Audi Team Rosberg	1:25.320	+0.606s	182.531 km/h	14
15th	7	Bruno Spengler	BMW Team MTEK	1:25.341	+0.627s	182.486 km/h	15
16th	10	Timo Scheider	Audi Team Phoenix	1:25.368	+0.654s	182.429 km/h	16
17th	12	Daniel Juncadella	Petronas Mercedes-AMG	1:25.371	+0.657s	182.422 km/h	17
18th	77	Martin Tomczyk	BMW Team Schnitzer	1:25.446	+0.732s	182.262 km/h	18
19th	36	Maxime Martin	BMW Team RMG	1:25.476	+0.762s	182.198 km/h	19
20th	17	Miguel Molina	Audi Team Abt Sportsline	1:25.479	+0.765s	182.192 km/h	20
21st	31	Tom Blomqvist	BMW Team RBM	1:25.485	+0.771s	182.179 km/h	21
22nd	84	Maximilian Götz	Petronas Mercedes-AMG	1:25.530	+0.816s	182.083 km/h	22
23rd	16	Timo Glock	BMW Team MTEK	1:25.599	+0.885s	181.936 km/h	23
24th	22	Lucas Auer	ART Grand Prix Mercedes	1:25.661	+0.947s	181.805 km/h	24
Source:

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

Grid

The starting grid for the 2015 Spielberg Race 1 is outlined below:

		16	Timo Glock	1:25.599			31	Tom Blomqvist	1:25.485			36	Maxime Martin	1:25.476			12	Daniel Juncadella	1:25.371			7	Bruno Spengler	1:25.341			13	António Félix da Costa	1:25.313			27	Adrien Tambay	1:25.292			5	Mattias Ekström	1:25.191			6	Robert Wickens	1:25.146			18	Augusto Farfus	1:25.018			94	Pascal Wehrlein	1:24.926			48	Edoardo Mortara	1:24.714
	22	Lucas Auer		1:25.661		84	Maximilian Götz		1:25.530		17	Miguel Molina		1:25.479		77	Martin Tomczyk		1:25.446		10	Timo Scheider		1:25.368		51	Nico Müller		1:25.320		1	Marco Wittmann		1:25.295		99	Mike Rockenfeller		1:25.214		2	Gary Paffett		1:25.189		8	Christian Vietoris		1:25.134		3	Paul di Resta		1:25.006		53	Jamie Green		1:24.907

Race

With a dry Saturday afternoon greeting the field once again, the tight qualifying session was hoped to translate into an action packed first race. Edoardo Mortara was one of the favourites for the race, particularly after he emerged with a margin of two tenths over the rest of the field in quali. But, there were 23 other drivers hoping to beat him, with Jamie Green the most likely to pounce if there were any mistakes.

Report

That fact was immediately proven by the Brit, as Green beat the Italian to the inside of turn one at the start to snatch the lead. Further back, Pascal Wehrlein beat Paul di Resta off the line to hold third, while Augusto Farfus lost out to Christian Vietoris. The tight and narrow circuit was expected to cause incidents at the start, but the clean getaway meant that Green could work to build an early lead and control the pace.

Jamie Green grids to a halt at the front of the field.

But, it was not to be Green's day, as his Audi ground to a halt at the start of the second lap with a gearbox failure. His demise, which saw him limp the ailing RS5 out of the first corner, scattering cars across the track and giving an opportunist di Resta a chance to overtake Wehrlein. As the Scot climbed into second place, the field calmed down, awaiting the activation of DRS on lap four.

The first man to take advantage of DRS was Wehrlein, who re-passed di Resta after slip streaming the Scot into the braking zone into turn two. He proceeded to attempt to close the gap to Mortara, who had quickly broken the one second margin for DRS activation. Di Resta was left to fend off the rest of the field for third, while Mattias Ekström made an identical move on Gary Paffett to begin his climb up the order.

Adrien Tambay took advantage of Mike Rockenfeller's move on Bruno Spengler to pass the pair of them in short order, as Marco Wittmann forced his way past Paffett. Martin Tomczyk became the third retirement from the race, following Robert Wickens who had retired with an unspecified issue earlier on. As the race passed the halfway mark, Paffett was striking back at Wittmann by taking the place, with the pair remaining locked together.

Their duel, however, cost them enough time that Tambay and Rockenfeller drew onto the rear splitter of Wittmann. That allowed Paffett to escape for the time being, as Rockenfeller made two decisive moves over the following laps to move from tenth to eighth. The first saw pull a confident move past Tambay into turn two, before a three lap stalk of Wittmann saw him climb further into the points.

Edoardo Mortara celebrates his third career victory.

The closing minutes of the race saw Spengler tumble further down the field, succumbing to two physical, but fair, moves by Nico Müller and Maxime Martin. Farfus, meanwhile, was drawing onto the back of Vietoris, although he would need a swift manoeuvre to get past, with Ekstrom coming on strong. As it happened, the Brazilian was unable too, with Vietoris successfully blocking his attempt into turn three on the final lap which allowed Ekstrom to pounce. The lightest of taps on the back of the BMW and the Swede was through at turn five.

But, at the front, victory went to Mortara, as he and Wehrlein fought a fight that never happened, simply trading fastest sector times. Their pace proved to be relentless, as they dropped a lonely di Resta by almost ten seconds by the end of the race. Vietoris did not have to suffer an attack from Ekstrom to finish fourth, with the Swede ending the day in fifth. The result meant that Wehrlein and Ekstrom leapt ahead of Green in the Championship.

Result

The final classification of the 2015 Spielberg Race 1 is displayed below:

2015 Spielberg Race 1 Result
Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Laps	Race Time	Fastest lap	Pts.
1st	48	Edoardo Mortara	Audi Team Abt	29	41:41.536	1:25.632	25
2nd	94	Pascal Wehrlein	gooix/OT Mercedes-AMG	29	+1.792s	1:25.758	18
3rd	3	Paul di Resta	Silberpfeil Mercedes-AMG	29	+11.200s	1:26.187	15
4th	8	Christian Vietoris	gooix/OT Mercedes-AMG	29	+17.958s	1:26.270	12
5th	5	Mattias Ekström	Audi Team Abt Sportsline	29	+19.300s	1:26.175	10
6th	18	Augusto Farfus	BMW Team RBM	29	+19.902s	1:26.264	8
7th	2	Gary Paffett	ART Grand Prix Mercedes	29	+23.272s	1:26.273	6
8th	99	Mike Rockenfeller	Audi Team Phoenix	29	+23.534s	1:26.152	4
9th	1	Marco Wittmann	BMW Team RMG	29	+29.879s	1:26.363	2
10th	27	Adrien Tambay	Audi Team Abt Sportsline	29	+30.368s	1:26.128	1
11th	12	Daniel Juncadella	Petronas Mercedes-AMG	29	+31.966s	1:26.450
12th	51	Nico Müller	Audi Team Rosberg	29	+37.797s	1:26.433
13th	13	António Félix da Costa	BMW Team Schnitzer	29	+38.532s	1:26.544
14th	36	Maxime Martin	BMW Team RMG	29	+39.350s	1:26.661
15th	7	Bruno Spengler	BMW Team MTEK	29	+39.925s	1:26.534
16th	10	Timo Scheider	Audi Team Phoenix	29	+40.422s	1:26.579
17th	31	Tom Blomqvist	BMW Team RBM	29	+45.267s	1:26.592
18th	17	Miguel Molina	Audi Team Abt Sportsline	29	+45.684s	1:26.394
19th	16	Timo Glock	BMW Team MTEK	29	+46.800s	1:26.631
20th	84	Maximilian Götz	Petronas Mercedes-AMG	29	+47.375s	1:26.659
21st	22	Lucas Auer	ART Grand Prix Mercedes	29	+49.453s	1:26.711
Ret	77	Martin Tomczyk	BMW Team Schnitzer	10	Retired	1:27.501
Ret	6	Robert Wickens	Silberpfeil Mercedes-AMG	7	Retired	1:28.120
Ret	53	Jamie Green	Audi Team Rosberg	3	Gearbox	1:30.809
Source:

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

Milestones

• Third career victory for Edoardo Mortara

Standings

Pascal Wehrlein had shuffled to the head of the Championship after the first race in Spielberg, having moved onto 94 points for the campaign. Mattias Ekström had held station in second, while victory for Edoardo Mortara had seen him move into third, eleven off the lead. Former leader Jamie Green had therefore tumbled to fourth after his retirement, while Robert Wickens had lost ground in fifth.

gooix/Original-Teile Mercedes-AMG had enhanced their lead in the Teams' Championship as the season hit its halfway point, having claimed their 146th point of the season. Audi Team Abt Sportsline had held station in second but lost ground to the leaders, while Silberpfeil Mercedes-AMG had risen to third ahead of Audi Team Rosberg. In the Manufacturers' Championship, meanwhile, Audi had enhanced their lead, while Mercedes-AMG had moved back ahead of BMW.

2015 Drivers' Championship Pos. Name Pts. +/- 1st Pascal Wehrlein 94 ▲2 2nd Mattias Ekström 86 ◄0 3rd Edoardo Mortara 83 ▲1 4th Jamie Green 81 ▼3 5th Robert Wickens 57 ◄0 6th Christian Vietoris 52 ▲3 7th Bruno Spengler 52 ▼1 8th Marco Wittmann 51 ▼1 9th António Félix da Costa 43 ▼1 10th Augusto Farfus 43 ▲1 11th Gary Paffett 43 ▼1 12th Paul di Resta 38 ▲4 13th Maxime Martin 32 ▼1 14th Mike Rockenfeller 29 ◄0 15th Miguel Molina 27 ▼2 16th Timo Glock 25 ▼1 17th Martin Tomczyk 20 ◄0 18th Timo Scheider 16 ◄0 19th Daniel Juncadella 14 ◄0 20th Nico Müller 12 ◄0 21st Tom Blomqvist 6 ◄0 22nd Adrien Tambay 3 ▲1 23rd Lucas Auer 2 ▼1 24th Maximilian Götz 0 ◄0

2015 Teams' Championship Pos. Name Pts. +/- 1st gooix/OT Mercedes-AMG 146 ◄0 2nd Audi Team Abt Sportsline 113 ◄0 3rd Silberpfeil Mercedes-AMG 95 ▲2 4th Audi Team Rosberg 93 ▼1 5th Audi Team Abt 86 ▲3 6th BMW Team RMG 83 ▼2 7th BMW Team MTEK 77 ▼1 8th BMW Team Schnitzer 63 ▼1 9th BMW Team RBM 49 ◄0 10th ART Grand Prix Mercedes 45 ▲2 11th Audi Team Phoenix 45 ▼1 12th Petronas Mercedes-AMG 14 ◄0 2015 Manufacturers' Championship Pos. Name Pts. +/- 1st Audi 337 ◄0 2nd Mercedes-AMG 300 ▲1 3rd BMW 247 ▼1

References

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