Italian Edoardo Motora jumped into the lead position and held in Race 1 at Hockenheim
The 2016 Season of the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters or DTM kicked off today in spectacular fashion at the Hockenheimring.
Italian Edoardo Motara kicked off the season with his fourth career win after pretty much controlling the opening round at Hockenheim from beginning to end.
Motara started on the front row next to first time pole sitter Nico Muller and was able to pull ahead into the lead position, a place he would be able to protect all the way through to the checkered flag.
Five year veteran Motara would only have to worry about hard charging Robert Wickens towards the end of the race. Wicken’s Mercedes was able to get within two seconds of the leader putting him in a position of having to settle for a podium, ahead of Muller, placing him on the rostrum for the first time.
A late pass by Paul di Resta would see him get heard of Mercedes team-member Christian Vietoris launching him into a good position this early in the season. BMW drivers Bruno Spengler and Antonio Felix da Costa trailed as vehicles from the Munich marque struggled in the warm conditions.
Incidents throughout the race created excitement in the stands that saw Timo Scheider out in the first lap of the race after clipping the spinning Tom Bloomqvist right before Daniel Juncadella and Timo Glock were eliminated when the crashed at the stadium section.
Disappointment also followed Estaban Ocon who failed to finish in his debut in DTM, managing to squeeze in three laps before being forced into retirement.
Source: DTM