Moscow DTM: Wickens dominates wet race after passing Paffett

The Canadian's triumph sees him join Edoardo Mortara as a repeat race winner in 2016 - and, with points leader Marco Wittmann failing to score, Wickens now leads the DTM standings.

Intermittent showers continued to dictate weekend proceedings after the wet-dry Saturday qualifying session - and, come the start of Race 1, the track was absolutely drenched.

The weather conditions meant the race started under the safety car, and the field lapped the 3.9km track three times before the action kicked off.

Poleman Paffett led the field into Turn 1, but Wickens was close behind already. And when Paffett went wide at Turn 3 - seemingly as part of Mercedes' championship strategy - the Canadian stormed past.

From that point on, Wickens would not have to look back, establishing a gap of 2.7s over his British stablemate during the first green flag lap - and increasing it to 4.1s the next time around.

Shortly thereafter, Paffett gave up ground, allowing Paul di Resta through into second, with Wickens ending up a staggering 9.1s up the road.

His victory now in very little doubt, Wickens briefly took the gap to 12 seconds and eventually took the chequered flag 10.9s ahead of di Resta.

Paffett kept up with the Scotsman much of the distance, bringing it home to complete a Mercedes podium lockout.

Maximilian Gotz helped Mercedes convert a 1-2-3-4 in qualifying into the same result in the race, holding off the lead Audi of Mattias Ekstrom in the final laps.

Audi's main title contenders Edoardo Mortara and Jamie Green were waved past by Timo Scheider for P7 and P8, before Green managed an unlikely overtake on Mortara. The Briton soon caught up to Maxime Martin in P6, but could not get pat the Belgian.

Behind Mortara and Scheider, debutant Felix Rosenqvist secured one point in 10th, as all 24 drivers took the chequered flag.

With Wittmann only managing to make up one place from his P20 starting spot, the 2014 champion has surrendered the standings lead to Wickens, who is now three points ahead - with Green just one further point behind.

Race results

Pos.	#	Driver	Car	Time/Gap
1	6	Robert Wickens	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	42'29.196
2	3	Paul di Resta	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	10.955
3	2	Gary Paffett	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	12.293
4	84	Maximilian Götz	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	25.270
5	5	Mattias Ekström	Audi RS5 DTM	25.874
6	36	Maxime Martin	BMW M4 DTM	27.243
7	53	Jamie Green	Audi RS5 DTM	27.752
8	48	Edoardo Mortara	Audi RS5 DTM	30.108
9	10	Timo Scheider	Audi RS5 DTM	31.671
10	88	Felix Rosenqvist	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	32.848
11	16	Timo Glock	BMW M4 DTM	35.243
12	27	Adrien Tambay	Audi RS5 DTM	36.197
13	51	Nico Müller	Audi RS5 DTM	38.287
14	18	Augusto Farfus	BMW M4 DTM	42.822
15	7	Bruno Spengler	BMW M4 DTM	44.030
16	99	Mike Rockenfeller	Audi RS5 DTM	44.781
17	17	Miguel Molina	Audi RS5 DTM	46.951
18	22	Lucas Auer	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	49.944
19	11	Marco Wittmann	BMW M4 DTM	50.288
20	13	Antonio Felix da Costa	BMW M4 DTM	51.313
21	100	Martin Tomczyk	BMW M4 DTM	59.926
22	31	Tom Blomqvist	BMW M4 DTM	1'02.697
23	8	Christian Vietoris	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	1'07.259
24	12	Daniel Juncadella	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	1'10.016