Hockenheim DTM: Rast beats Wittmann to win, Button ninth

Polesitter Rast had held his advantage comfortably through the opening phase of the race as Mike Rockenfeller stormed past front-row starter Wittmann at the beginning to run second, and act as a buffer for the leading Audi.

That meant Rast could build a lead of 2.6 seconds over Wittmann early on, but the BMW driver almost took the lead following the mandatory pitstops.

Wittmann had pitted at the end of lap 17 of 38, attempting an undercut on Rast, and the Audi driver responded by pitting on the following lap.

A marginally slower stop for Rast meant he came out of the pits with a narrow advantage over Wittmann and looked set to be passed due to running on cold tyres, but a safety car spared the Audi driver after BMW's Philipp Eng lost power on the run to the hairpin and pulled off track.

At the restart, Rast powered clear of Wittmann only for the BMW driver to progressively reel his rival in, finally making a move for the lead by diving down the inside at the hairpin.

Rast hit back at the same corner on the following lap, running alongside Wittmann on the exit as they headed for the high-speed Turn 7 right-hander, moving back ahead of the BMW before turning in.

Wittmann had significantly less DRS and push-to-pass compared to Rast and was unable to challenge the 2019 champion again.

Rast's main title rival Nico Muller had looked set to complete the podium after benefitting from the timing of the safety car but fell to 16th after he was forced to serve a drivethrough penalty for speeding in the pitlane.

That had helped Button's top 10 charge after the 2018 SUPER GT champion was hurt by a pitstop that took 17.9s, having highlighted pitstop efficiency as a weakness for his Kunimitsu Honda squad on Friday.

Falling from the lower end of the top 10 to 16th, Button began to climb through the field progressively in the second half of the race.

He was boosted by Pietro Fittipaldi pitching his WRT Audi teammate Jonathan Aberdein into a spin, with the former earning a drive through penalty.

But Button also cleared Audi's Jamie Green late on to go 12th and battled strongly in a pack of cars against BMW's Sheldon van der Linde, coming out on top despite his rival being warned for forcing Button off the track.

Having moved to 11th, he then cleared R-Motorsport Aston Martin driver Jake Dennis ahead and moved to ninth once Muller served his penalty.

Muller's demotion promoted Rockenfeller back to the podium places ahead of Robin Frijns and Loic Duval.

Timo Glock was sixth after his race was compromised by his left-hand door coming loose, requiring Glock to drive one-handed at stages before coming into the pits early to make his stop and sort the problem.

Paul di Resta was an impressive seventh and the leading Aston Martin despite complaining of a steering problem mid-race.

Bruno Spengler was eighth for BMW ahead of Button and Joel Eriksson.

Button's fellow SUPER GT runners had difficult races.

Tsugio Matsuda failed to start the race when his NISMO-entered Nissan failed to start the formation lap but came out on track 17 laps down to take the flag.

Ryo Hiriwaka took his TOM'S Lexus to 13th after benefitting from incidents for rivals after his squad opted for a first lap pitstop that meant it had to take a second stop later on in the race.

R-Motorsport's reliability problems returned with Daniel Juncadella missing out on a potential top 10 finish when he retired with a suspension problem, while Ferdinand Habsburg was unable to start the race due to an engine problem.

Results:

Cla	Driver	Car	Time	Gap
1	René Rast	Audi RS 5 Turbo DTM	1:01'00.948
2	Marco Wittmann	BMW M4 Turbo DTM	1:01'02.641	1.693
3	Mike Rockenfeller	Audi RS 5 Turbo DTM	1:01'11.645	10.697
4	Robin Frijns	Audi RS 5 Turbo DTM	1:01'18.743	17.795
5	Loic Duval	Audi RS 5 Turbo DTM	1:01'25.172	24.224
6	Timo Glock	BMW M4 Turbo DTM	1:01'26.708	25.760
7	Paul di Resta	Aston Martin Vantage DTM	1:01'27.387	26.439
8	Bruno Spengler	BMW M4 Turbo DTM	1:01'28.218	27.270
9	Jenson Button	Honda NSX-GT	1:01'32.440	31.492
10	Joel Eriksson	BMW M4 Turbo DTM	1:01'32.816	31.868
11	Jake Dennis	Aston Martin Vantage DTM	1:01'38.945	37.997
12	Jamie Green	Audi RS 5 Turbo DTM	1:01'39.390	38.442
13	Nick Cassidy	Lexus LC500	1:01'41.906	40.958
14	Jonathan Aberdein	Audi RS 5 Turbo DTM	1:01'47.879	46.931
15	Pietro Fittipaldi	Audi RS 5 Turbo DTM	1:02'00.144	59.196
16	Sheldon Van Der Linde	BMW M4 Turbo DTM	1:02'00.550	59.602
17	Nico Müller	Audi RS 5 Turbo DTM	1:02'02.544	1'01.596
	Tsugio Matsuda	Nissan/ R35	1:01'07.832	17 Laps
	Daniel Juncadella	Aston Martin Vantage DTM	33'26.299	18 Laps
	Philipp Eng	BMW M4 Turbo DTM	26'58.716	21 Laps
View full results