Red Bull Ring DTM: Ekstrom passes Green for Race 1 win

Green led the race off the line from pole position, with Muller quickly giving up second place to Ekstrom.

However, once Ekstrom was up to second, Green did not give the lead to the top Audi man in the standings, and instead pulled away from the Swede.

The Briton's lead was up to five seconds when Ekstrom pitted. Muller changed tyres a lap after Ekstrom and, even though he rejoined in front, he again gave his place up.

Green then stopped a few laps later and comfortably held the provisional lead afterwards, only to lose most of his advantage with a couple of slow laps.

While the gap stayed just over a second for most of the race, Ekstrom got even closer during the final 10 minutes.

He was finally close enough to make a move on Lap 36, the Swede passing Green at Remus.

Green did not put pressure on Ekstrom for the rest of the race and settled for second, with Muller following close to complete the podium.

The Audi trio beat the rest of the field, led by Robert Wickens, by 21 seconds.

Wickens gained three positions at the start to hold fourth and he kept the place after the pitstops as well.

He made contact with Rene Rast soon after his stop, which broke a part on his Mercedes. Rast then had another incident when a late overtaking attempt on Maxime Martin left the Audi driver facing the wrong way.

Despite not having a strong pace and a train of five cars forming behind him, Wickens escaped with fourth.

Marco Wittmann was unable to make a move and settled for fifth, as stablemate Martin had to keep Mike Rockenfeller at bay for sixth.

Lucas Auer scored four points in eighth, followed by Edoardo Mortara, who was one of few opting for a late-pitting strategy.

The Italian rejoined in sixth place when he finally changed tyres, but was quickly overtaken by Rockenfeller and then let Auer past.

Timo Glock took the final point-scoring position in 10th.

Augusto Farfus was the only driver to retire, the Brazilian slightly nudged off track by Auer on Lap 2, and then pulling into the pits from last place later on.

Ekstrom's points lead is up to 28 with three races to go, as Green has now stepped up as his closest challenger.

Race 1 results

Cla	Driver	Car	Time/Gap
1	Mattias Ekström	Audi RS5 DTM	57'00.812
2	Jamie Green	Audi RS5 DTM	0.398
3	Nico Müller	Audi RS5 DTM	0.602
4	Robert Wickens	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	21.625
5	Marco Wittmann	BMW M4 DTM	22.118
6	Maxime Martin	BMW M4 DTM	22.748
7	Mike Rockenfeller	Audi RS5 DTM	23.067
8	Lucas Auer	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	23.452
9	Edoardo Mortara	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	23.761
10	Timo Glock	BMW M4 DTM	25.559
11	Paul di Resta	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	25.938
12	Bruno Spengler	BMW M4 DTM	26.447
13	René Rast	Audi RS5 DTM	26.788
14	Loic Duval	Audi RS5 DTM	27.096
15	Maro Engel	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	27.514
16	Tom Blomqvist	BMW M4 DTM	32.951
17	Gary Paffett	Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM	45.721
18	Augusto Farfus	BMW M4 DTM