2018 Hockenheim Finale Race 1

2018 Hockenheim Finale Race 1
The Hockenheimring in 2018.
Race Information
Date	13 October 2018
No.	232
Event	DTM Hockenheim Finale 2018
Location	Hockenheimring Hockenheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Format	55 min + 1 Lap
Lap length	4.574 km (2.842 mi)
Distance	34 laps / 105.202 km (65.369 mi)
Qualifying Result
Pole Sitter	Lucas Auer
Team	Silberpfeil Energy Mercedes-AMG Motorsport
Time	1:32.635
Fastest Lap
Driver	Timo Glock
Team	BMW Team RMR
Time	1:34.743 on lap 19
Race Result
First	Second	Third
René Rast	Robin Frijns	Timo Glock
Winner Team	Audi Sport Team Rosberg
Time	56:59.934
Race Guide
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2018 Spielberg Race 2		2018 Hockenheim Finale Race 2

The DTM Hockenheim Finale 2018 Race 1, otherwise known as the 2018 Hockenheim Finale Race 1, was the nineteenth and penultimate round of the 2018 DMSB Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters Championship, staged at the Hockenheimring in Hockenheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany on 13 October 2018. The race would see René Rast secure his fifth straight victory, a new outright record for both iterations of the DTM, moving him within fifteen points of Championship leader Gary Paffett.

Ahead of the race there were a series of announcements concerning the 2019 season, with Belgian outfit WRT revealing that they would be entering as a customer Audi team. Furthermore, AF Racing AG revealed that they would bump their customer Aston Martin programme up a year and enter the series in 2019 with four cars, ensuring that there would be three manufacturers in 2019.

Qualifying would see Lucas Auer secure pole position, beating title pretender Paffett, whom had announced that he would leave the DTM with Mercedes at the end of the campaign. Fellow title pretender Rast would start from third on the grid ahead of the first of the BMWs in the form of Augusto Farfus, while Championship leader Paul di Resta would start from sixth.

The start of the race saw Auer jet into an early lead ahead of Paffett, while Farfus got the jump on Rast to secure third. Further around the opening tour Auer let Paffett slip ahead to secure the lead, with the #22 Mercedes dropping back to act as a rear gunner.

di Resta, meanwhile, would have to wait until the second lap to make progress, scything past Robin Frijns for fifth before sprinting off after Rast. Rast himself was on the tail of Farfus and duly moved past the #15 BMW for third as di Resta approached, dragging Frijns and Timo Glock along with him.

Rast was soon elevated to second when Auer hit throttle trouble, with the Austrian racer subsequently retiring on lap eight. Behind, di Resta was elbowed wide at the hairpin by a lunging Frijns and dropped back behind the Dutchman and Glock, with the #16 BMW then diving past the #4 Audi to claim fourth.

Frijns was ordered to let di Resta through a few laps later, as Glock squeezed past Farfus for third, soon followed by di Resta and the Dutchman. Rast, meanwhile, would find himself unable to close within DRS range of Paffett and so made his stop on lap thirteen, planning to undercut the #2 Mercedes.

A lap later and Paffett was in for his stop, and duly emerged just ahead of the #33 Audi, but on cold tyres. Rast duly went on the attack and spent half a lap running side-by-side with the Brit before securing the de facto lead, as behind di Resta managed to wrestle his way past Glock.

Paffett's retaliation began instantly, although Rast was strong in his defence and placed the #33 Audi beautifully to block the Brit. That fight would rumble on until the Safety Car was called upon, in order to allow debris from contact between Farfus and Loïc Duval to be cleared.

The restart would see Rast sprint clear of Paffett, while Daniel Juncadella was instantly passed by Glock, Duval, di Resta and Frijns. Glock then elbowed his way past Paffett for second, with Frijns likewise muscling his way past the #2 Mercedes, having slipped ahead of Duval and di Resta. The #4 Audi then managed to elbow its way past Glock for second, before drawing onto the back of Rast.

With that the race was run, with Rast sweeping across the line to secure his record victory, while Frijns and Glock completed the podium. Paffett was next up ahead of Duval, Rockenfeller and Nico Müller passed di Resta to leave the Brit in eighth, while Bruno Spengler and Mortara completed the scorers.

Background

Paul di Resta would retain the lead in the Championship with two rounds to go, although his advantage had been reduced to four points ahead of the finale. Gary Paffett was his closest challenger in second, although it was third placed René Rast who had the momentum ahead of the final battle in Hockenheim, although faced a 30 point deficit. Those three would also head into the finale as the only pretenders to the crown, with fourth placed Marco Wittmann too far back to challenge.

In the Teams' Championship it would be a straight fight between Mercedes-AMG Petronas and sister squad Mercedes-AMG Remus in Hockenheim for the title, with the former holding a 43 point advantage. Various scenarios between the two could earn either the title, and with their lead drivers both fighting for the title there was little chance of intervention from their controllers. Elsewhere, the Manufacturers' Championship was over, with Mercedes declared as Champions with two races to spare with 865 points, with BMW set to claim second, while Audi were classified in third.

Entry List

The full entry list for the 2018 Hockenheim Finale Race 1 is displayed below:

2018 Hockenheim Finale Race 1 Entry List
No.	Name	Entrant	Constructor	Chassis	Engine
2	Gary Paffett	Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Petronas	Mercedes	AMG C63 DTM	AMG 4.0l V8
3	Paul di Resta	Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Remus	Mercedes	AMG C63 DTM	AMG 4.0l V8
4	Robin Frijns	Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline	Audi	RS5 DTM	Audi 4.0l V8
7	Bruno Spengler	BMW Team RBM	BMW	M4 DTM	P66/1 4.0l V8
11	Marco Wittmann	BMW Team RMG	BMW	M4 DTM	P66/1 4.0l V8
15	Augusto Farfus	BMW Team RMG	BMW	M4 DTM	P66/1 4.0l V8
16	Timo Glock	BMW Team RMR	BMW	M4 DTM	P66/1 4.0l V8
22	Lucas Auer	Silberpfeil Energy Mercedes-AMG Motorsport	Mercedes	AMG C63 DTM	AMG 4.0l V8
23	Daniel Juncadella	Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Remus	Mercedes	AMG C63 DTM	AMG 4.0l V8
25	Philipp Eng	BMW Team RMR	BMW	M4 DTM	P66/1 4.0l V8
28	Loïc Duval	Audi Sport Team Phoenix	Audi	RS5 DTM	Audi 4.0l V8
33	René Rast	Audi Sport Team Rosberg	Audi	RS5 DTM	Audi 4.0l V8
47	Joel Eriksson	BMW Team RBM	BMW	M4 DTM	P66/1 4.0l V8
48	Edoardo Mortara	Silberpfeil Energy Mercedes-AMG Motorsport	Mercedes	AMG C63 DTM	AMG 4.0l V8
51	Nico Müller	Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline	Audi	RS5 DTM	Audi 4.0l V8
53	Jamie Green	Audi Sport Team Rosberg	Audi	RS5 DTM	Audi 4.0l V8
94	Pascal Wehrlein	Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Petronas	Mercedes	AMG C63 DTM	AMG 4.0l V8
99	Mike Rockenfeller	Audi Sport Team Phoenix	Audi	RS5 DTM	Audi 4.0l V8
Source:

Qualifying

Results

The final qualifying result for the 2018 Hockenheim Finale Race 1 are outlined below:

2018 Hockenheim Finale Race 1 Qualifying Result
Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Time	Gap	Ave. Speed	Grid
1st	22	Lucas Auer	Mercedes-AMG Silberpfeil	1:32.635	—	177.755 km/h	1
2nd	2	Gary Paffett	Mercedes-AMG Petronas	1:32.737	+0.102s	177.560 km/h	2
3rd	16	Timo Glock	BMW Team RMR	1:32.751	+0.116s	177.533 km/h	3
4th	33	René Rast	Audi Team Rosberg	1:32.847	+0.212s	177.349 km/h	4
5th	15	Augusto Farfus	BMW Team RMG	1:32.880	+0.245s	177.286 km/h	5
6th	51	Nico Müller	Audi Team Abt Sportsline	1:32.887	+0.252s	177.273 km/h	6
7th	25	Philipp Eng	BMW Team RMR	1:32.902	+0.267s	177.244 km/h	7
8th	3	Paul di Resta	Mercedes-AMG Remus	1:32.925	+0.290s	177.200 km/h	8
9th	4	Robin Frijns	Audi Team Abt Sportsline	1:32.946	+0.311s	177.160 km/h	9
10th	48	Edoardo Mortara	Mercedes-AMG Silberpfeil	1:32.949	+0.314s	177.155 km/h	10
11th	47	Joel Eriksson	BMW Team RBM	1:33.042	+0.407s	176.978 km/h	11
12th	7	Bruno Spengler	BMW Team RBM	1:33.070	+0.435s	176.924 km/h	12
13th	23	Daniel Juncadella	Mercedes-AMG Remus	1:33.098	+0.463s	176.871 km/h	13
14th	94	Pascal Wehrlein	Mercedes-AMG Petronas	1:33.124	+0.489s	176.822 km/h	14
15th	99	Mike Rockenfeller	Audi Team Phoenix	1:33.168	+0.533s	176.738 km/h	15
16th	28	Loïc Duval	Audi Team Phoenix	1:33.275	+0.640s	176.536 km/h	16
17th	53	Jamie Green	Audi Team Rosberg	1:33.372	+0.737s	176.352 km/h	17
NC	11	Marco Wittmann	BMW Team RMG	—			18
Source:

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

Grid

	Pos.	Pos.
	Driver	Driver
	______________
Row 1	1	______________
	Lucas Auer	2
	______________	Gary Paffett
Row 2	3	______________
	René Rast	4
	______________	Augusto Farfus
Row 3	5	______________
	Nico Müller	6
	______________	Paul di Resta
Row 4	7	______________
	Robin Frijns	8
	______________	Timo Glock
Row 5	9	______________
	Edoardo Mortara	10
	______________	Joel Eriksson
Row 6	11	______________
	Bruno Spengler	12
	______________	Philipp Eng
Row 7	13	______________
	Daniel Juncadella	14
	______________	Pascal Wehrlein
Row 8	15	______________
	Mike Rockenfeller	16
	______________	Loïc Duval
Row 9	17	______________
	Jamie Green	18
	______________	Marco Wittmann

Race

Results

The final classification of the 2018 Hockenheim Finale Race 1 is displayed below:

2018 Hockenheim Finale Race 1 Result
Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Laps	Race Time	Fastest lap	Pts.
1st	33	René Rast	Audi Team Rosberg	34	56:59.934	1:34.986	251
2nd	4	Robin Frijns	Audi Team Abt Sportsline	34	+0.354s	1:35.141	18
3rd	16	Timo Glock	BMW Team RMR	34	+1.856s	1:34.743	15
4th	2	Gary Paffett	Mercedes-AMG Petronas	34	+2.641s	1:35.238	122
5th	28	Loïc Duval	Audi Team Phoenix	34	+5.136s	1:35.476	10
6th	99	Mike Rockenfeller	Audi Team Phoenix	34	+6.066s	1:35.728	8
7th	51	Nico Müller	Audi Team Abt Sportsline	34	+6.982s	1:35.365	6
8th	3	Paul di Resta	Mercedes-AMG Remus	34	+7.952s	1:35.695	4
9th	7	Bruno Spengler	BMW Team RBM	34	+8.709s	1:35.676	2
10th	48	Edoardo Mortara	Mercedes-AMG Silberpfeil	34	+10.023s	1:36.075	1
11th	94	Pascal Wehrlein	Mercedes-AMG Petronas	34	+11.001s	1:36.011
12th	25	Philipp Eng	BMW Team RMR	34	+11.653s	1:34.877
13th	53	Jamie Green	Audi Team Rosberg	34	+12.299s	1:36.002
14th	23	Daniel Juncadella	Mercedes-AMG Remus	34	+13.030s	1:35.437
15th	47	Joel Eriksson	BMW Team RBM	34	+13.400s	1:35.484
16th*	11	Marco Wittmann	BMW Team RMG	27	Retired	1:34.945
17th*	15	Augusto Farfus	BMW Team RMG	25	Retired	1:34.795
Ret	22	Lucas Auer	Mercedes-AMG Silberpfeil	6	Retired	1:35.598	3
Source:

• ³ Indicates a driver was awarded points for qualifying in the top three.
• Bold indicates a driver started from pole.
• Italics indicate that a driver set fastest lap.
• * Wittmann and Farfus were both still classified despite retiring as they had completed 75% of the race distance.

Milestones

• Mercedes-AMG Petronas declared as the 2018 DMSB Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters Championship for Teams Champions.
  • This was the eleventh and final Teams' Championship won by HWA Team as an entrant.
• René Rast secured his ninth victory.
  • Rast set a new Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters and Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft for most consecutive wins - 5.

Standings

Gary Paffett had returned to the top of the Championship hunt with one more race to go, heading into the season ending race with a six point lead. Paul di Resta had made way for his compatriot, and would win the title if he won the race and out-qualified Paffett. The third title pretender appeared in the form of René Rast, who could win the crown if he won the finale from pole position, with Paffett fifth or lower.

The fight for the Teams' Championship was over with a race to go, as Mercedes-AMG Petronas were officially declared as Champions with 347 points. That meant they were more than 48 clear of sister squad Mercedes-AMG Remus, and hence were unable to be caught in the final race. Mercedes, meanwhile, had added to their title winning tally in the Manufacturers' Championship, while Audi had swept onto the back BMW in the fight to finish as runners-up.

2018 Drivers' Championship Pos. Name Pts. +/- 1st Gary Paffett 239 ▲1 2nd Paul di Resta 233 ▼1 3rd René Rast 224 ◄0 4th Marco Wittmann 143 ◄0 5th Timo Glock 143 ▲1 6th Edoardo Mortara 140 ▼1 7th Lucas Auer 121 ◄0 8th Pascal Wehrlein 108 ◄0 9th Philipp Eng 98 ◄0 10th Mike Rockenfeller 87 ◄0 11th Nico Müller 84 ◄0 12th Bruno Spengler 77 ◄0 13th Robin Frijns 74 ▲2 14th Joel Eriksson 70 ▼1 15th Daniel Juncadella 61 ▼1 16th Loïc Duval 54 ▲1 17th Augusto Farfus 50 ▼1 18th Jamie Green 27 ◄0

2018 Teams' Championship Pos. Name Pts. +/- 1st Mercedes-AMG Petronas 347 ◄0 2nd Mercedes-AMG Remus 294 ◄0 3rd Mercedes-AMG Silberpfeil 282 ◄0 4th BMW Team RMR 241 ▲1 5th Audi Team Rosberg 230 ▼1 6th BMW Team RMG 193 ◄0 7th Audi Team Abt Sportsline 158 ▲1 8th BMW Team RBM 147 ▼1 9th Audi Team Phoenix 141 ◄0 2018 Manufacturers' Championship Pos. Name Pts. +/- 1st Mercedes 887 ◄0 2nd BMW 581 ◄0 3rd Audi 550 ◄0

References

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