Assen DTM: Frijns beats Duval to score maiden win

Polesitter Duval got away cleanly from pole position to retain the lead into Turn 1, with Ferdinand Habsburg moving up to second after rocketing away from fourth on grid.

While Duval could hold station out front, Habsburg couldn't keep up with the factory Audi driver and started dropping down the order, slipping behind Mike Rockenfeller to sixth by lap 12.

That allowed Frijns to move back up to second, with Rene Rast assuming second having passed his title rival Nico Muller on the opening lap of the race.

Duval was the first of the leaders to make his pitstop on lap 16, with Rast and Muller following him a lap later.

Rast's stop was three seconds slower due to a delay in changing the front-right tyre, which was just enough for Muller to snatch third spot from the reigning champion.

Meanwhile, at the front, Frijns started closing in on Duval for the lead of the race, bringing the deficit down to 0.8s on lap 25.

Duval responded to the Abt driver's speed to extend his advantage back up to second, while Muller and Rast also joined the battle for victory.

However, Duval's pace began to fade and he lost six tenths on lap 29 alone, bringing Frijns and the rest of the chasing pack into play.

Frijns got a better exit out of the turn 5 hairpin and pulled alongside Duval on the back straight, before making a move into the following corner to take the lead for the first time.

Muller was unable to pass Duval for second, giving Frijns the breathing space to score his first-ever victory in the DTM, which he fittingly achieved in front of a limited home crowd at Assen.

Rast couldn't cope with the pace of the top three and fell back to fifth place behind Mike Rockenfeller, who was able to take advantage of fresher tyres to pass the reigning champion on lap 33.

Jonathan Aberdein finished as the top BMW driver in sixth, more than 25 seconds behind race winner Frijns as the Munich-based manufacturer failed to match the performance of Audi.

Habsburg eventually finished seventh, but crucially ahead of the factory BMWs of Sheldon van der Linde and Timo Glock.

A late pitstop allowed Formula 1 race winner Robert Kubica to score his first point of the season in 10th, the ART BMW driver clearing WRT Audi's Harrison Newey and Lausitzring Race 2 winner Lucas Auer in the final few laps. 

The race had to be shortened due to a delay in wheeling Jamie Green's Audi back into the pits after he stalled on the formation lap.

Green joined the action midway through the race, finishing 14 laps down in 16th position.

Race results:

Cla	#	Driver	Car	Gap	Points
1	4	Robin Frijns	Audi RS5 Turbo DTM 2020		25
2	28	Loic Duval	Audi RS5 Turbo DTM 2020	0.505	18
3	51	Nico Müller	Audi RS5 Turbo DTM 2020	0.950	15
4	99	Mike Rockenfeller	Audi RS5 Turbo DTM 2020	3.188	12
5	33	René Rast	Audi RS5 Turbo DTM 2020	13.735	10
6	27	Jonathan Aberdein	BMW M4 Turbo DTM 2020	26.768	8
7	62	Ferdinand Habsburg	Audi RS5 Turbo DTM 2020	30.604	6
8	31	Sheldon Van Der Linde	BMW M4 Turbo DTM 2020	31.336	4
9	16	Timo Glock	BMW M4 Turbo DTM 2020	36.888	2
10	8	Robert Kubica	BMW M4 Turbo DTM 2020	43.576	1
11	22	Lucas Auer	BMW M4 Turbo DTM 2020	45.131
12	10	Harrison Newey	Audi RS5 Turbo DTM 2020	46.632
13	25	Philipp Eng	BMW M4 Turbo DTM 2020	56.845
14	11	Marco Wittmann	BMW M4 Turbo DTM 2020	1'05.216
15	13	Fabio Scherer	Audi RS5 Turbo DTM 2020	1'23.093
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