DTM: Mattias Esktröm scores his first victory of the season in Zandvoort (+photos)

By ,

From press release

Mattias Ekström scored the first victory for Audi in the 2014 season, this week-end in Zandvoort.

With his Audi RS 5 DTM, he ended up ahead of already-crowned DTM champion Marco Wittmann. At the finish, the Swede had an advantage of 7.4 seconds. BMW's Martin Tomczyk completed the podium.

(Photo: DTM.com)

"After all the bad luck of the past months, now, things were running perfectly for us at last. I enjoyed every lap of this race," said a delighted Ekström after scoring his fourth DTM career win at Zandvoort.

Marco Wittmann, who claimed the championship title in the Lausitzring round, was in contention for victory for a long time. Having started from second place, the German already took the lead in the first corner.

(Photo: DTM.com)

Eventually, however, he didn’t have a chance against Ekström, who got maximum benefit from his soft option tire in the closing stages of the race.

"This wasn’t an easy race for us as there were plenty of incidents. Initially, I had a perfect start, but our option tires degraded more quickly than we had expected.

(Photo: DTM.com)

"In spite of the chaos on the track, my team always made the right decisions and called me into the pits at the right time," Wittmann said after the race.

Martin Tomczyk was also delighted after his first podium finish since August, 2012.

With his BMW M4 DTM, Maxime Martin finished sixth and thus contributed to the early title win for the BMW Team RMG in the teams’ standings.

(Photo: DTM.com)

After winning the drivers’ title with Marco Wittmann, this is already the second title for Stefan Reinhold’s team.

In the battle for the manufacturers’ title, Audi is still in contention with BMW.

As usual, the Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg will be the venue for the season finale, October 19.

Race results* – Zandvoort (9/10)
1 - Mattias Ekstrom (Audi RS5) - Abt - 43 laps in 1.16'35"761
2 - Marco Wittmann (BMW M4) - RMG - 7"414
3 - Martin Tomczyk (BMW M4) - Schnitzer - 11"144
4 - Edoardo Mortara (Audi RS5) - Abt - 12"234
5 - Christian Vietoris (Mercedes C-Coupe) - HWA - 12"730
6 - Maxime Martin (BMW M4) - RMG - 14"260
7 - Pascal Wehrlein (Mercedes C-Coupe) - HWA - 15"128
8 - Bruno Spengler (BMW M4) - Schnitzer - 15"591
9 - Daniel Juncadella (Mercedes C-Coupe) - HWA - 15"729
10 - Robert Wickens (Mercedes C-Coupe) - HWA - 16"182
11 - Timo Scheider (Audi RS5) - Phoenix - 16"792
12 - Joey Hand (BMW M4) - RBM - 20"736
13 - Vitaly Petrov (Mercedes C-Coupe) - Mucke - 21"518
14 - Timo Glock (BMW M4) - MTEK - 23"799
15 - Antonio Felix Da Costa (BMW M4) - MTEK - 24"233
16 - Jamie Green (Audi RS5) - Rosberg - 25"008
17 - Mike Rockenfeller (Audi RS5) - Phoenix - 36"746
18 - Miguel Molina (Audi RS5) - Abt - 1 lap

Retirements
Gary Paffett
Nico Muller
Augusto Farfus
Paul Di Resta
Adrien Tambay

Championship
1.Wittmann 146; 2.Ekstrom 81; 3.Vietoris 69; 4.Mortara 68; 5.Rockenfeller 54; 6.Martin 47; 7.Wehrlein 46; 8.Tomczyk 43; 9.Spengler 42; 10.Wickens and Farfus 39.
*Unofficial results

(Photo: DTM.com)