By Tarek Ramchani
The first DTM race at the Norisring proved to be a very tough one for the Audi drivers, the hardest for the Ingolstadt brand since the start of the 2015 season. A single Audi driver was inside the Top 10, The King of the Norisring Jamie Green.
The weather played a crucial role in this 40-minute sprint race. It started with a full wet track and later conditions improved in the second half of the race.
Jamie Green who had a bad strart managed to bounce back and improve. He ended the race in seventh place with his #53 Audi RS 5 DTM. The Audi Sport Team Rosberg driver was right behind BMW's Martin Tomzyck. Up ahead it was an all Mercedes-Benz affair with Pascal Wehrlein first, Robert Wickens second and Gary Paffett third.
Edoardo Mortara narrowly missed the Top 10, the Italia driver at Audi Sport Team Abt finished the race in eleventh place. 2013 DTM champion Mike Rockenfeller (Audi Sport Team Phoenix) who had a strong start of the race was fourteenth.
Timo Scheider (Audi Sport Team Phoenix) was sixteenth. Mattias Ekstrom (Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline) was seventeenth. Nico Mueller (Audi Sport Team Rosberg) was eighteenth. Adrien Tambey (Audi Sport Team Abt) was ninteenth. Miguel Molina (Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline) who was involced in an incident at the start of the race, was twentieth.
The second Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters qualifying session and race 2 will be held tomorrow. A 60-minute event with a mandatory pit-stop.
Photo credit: Audi Media
