DTM season 2018 / Hockenheim I

Track layout of the Hockenheimring .

The season opener of the 2018 DTM season took place between May 4th and 6th, 2018 at the Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg in Hockenheim .

Reports

backgrounds

Robin Frijns ( Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline ) as well as Philipp Eng and Joel Eriksson (both BMW Team RBM ) made their DTM debuts this weekend. Daniel Juncadella and Pascal Wehrlein returned to the series for HWA after a break of one and two years respectively. Most recently, both of them competed in Hockenheim in 2016 and 2015 respectively. Mattias Ekström , who ended his DTM career after the previous season in 2017 , completed the weekend as a guest starter for Audi .

Mercedes started the manufacturer's last DTM season this weekend.

Ten competitions were Jamie Green (six times), Ekström, Gary Paffett (four times each), Bruno Spengler (three times), Paul di Resta , Edoardo Mortara , Marco Wittmann (twice each), Lucas Auer , Augusto Farfus and Timo Glock (once each) former Hockenheim winners to the races.

Friday

In the first practice session on Friday, di Resta set the fastest lap in 1: 33.962 minutes ahead of Paffett and Auer.

Saturday

In the second practice session on Saturday morning, Glock was the fastest in 1: 32.434 minutes ahead of Wehrlein and Auer.

In qualifying for Saturday's race, Paffett achieved pole position in 1: 32.264 minutes from Wittmann and Glock.

At the start of the race, the top three were initially able to hold their positions, but Glock had to give up his third place on the first lap to Auer, who started immediately behind him. A little later Auer also passed Wittmann in second place and took the lead from Paffett in the sixth minute.

After eleven minutes in the race, Green was the first driver to pit to complete his mandatory stop . In the meantime, Auer expanded his lead at the top opposite the Paffett and Glock who were behind him. Wittmann and Glock completed their pit stop after around 20 minutes. They were followed shortly after by Paffett and then by the leading Auer. As a result, Mortara temporarily took the lead, but his stop was still pending at this point. In the "adjusted" order of the drivers who had already made it behind them, Paffett walked past Auer's pit stop and took the virtual lead.

After Mortara pitted, René Rast took the lead. Meanwhile, Auer extended his lead over Glock after having previously had to defend his position against him. After 36 and 38 minutes respectively, Rast, Juncadella and Nico Müller were the last drivers for the pit stop, which restored the original order.

In the end, Paffett won the race after 36 laps in front of Auer and Glock. The fastest lap went Juncadella in 1: 34.181 minutes. The whole field saw the checkered flag, the last placed Green was around 45 seconds behind the winner.

With the victory and pole position, Paffett took the lead in the drivers' standings with 28 points, ahead of Auer (18) and Glock (16). In the manufacturers' championship, Mercedes (78) was ahead of BMW (26) and Audi (3).

Sunday

Rast set the best time of the third training session on Sunday in 1: 32.931 minutes. Green and Glock followed him in second and third.

Glock achieved pole position for the Sunday race with 1: 32.379 minutes ahead of Rast and Eriksson.

At the start, Glock was able to stay in the lead, followed by Auer, who started in fifth, moved up to third. However, a little later he was given a five-second stop-and-go penalty for a jump start , which had to be served at his next stop at the pits. It was the same with Juncadella. Mortara, who was fourth on the grid, dropped back to 18th and gave up the race after two laps in the pits.

Despite the penalty imposed on him, Auer passed Rast to second place shortly afterwards, while Glock extended his lead. Meanwhile, Paffett, who started from tenth place, started a race to catch up and took third place from Rast after 15 minutes. Shortly beforehand, Juncadella was the first driver to complete his mandatory pit stop. Shortly afterwards he was followed by di Resta, the first driver from the leading group.

After 23 minutes, the leader stopped Glock. At the same time, the previous day's winner Paffett passed Auer and took the lead. When he pitted himself shortly afterwards, he fell behind Glock and di Resta. He overtook the latter a little later.

As a result, a duel between Glock and Paffett for the lead developed at the top. There were several changes of position between the two. This enabled Eriksson, who had overtaken di Resta, and a few other drivers to catch up. After Eriksson had unsuccessfully attacked second-placed Paffett, he lost a position to Mike Rockenfeller in return . The latter also overtook Paffett on the last lap of the race and thus secured second place.

Glock won the race ahead of Rockenfeller and Paffett. With 36 laps, the field drove the same distance as the day before. 18 of the 19 people who had started reached the finish line, Paffett set the fastest race lap in 1: 34.069 minutes.

With the victory, Glock also took the lead in the drivers' standings with 44 points, ahead of Paffett (43) and the new third Rockenfeller (18). With the manufacturers, Mercedes (103) stayed ahead of BMW (72) and Audi (39).

Classifications

Race 1

Item	driver	team	Round	time	begin
01	Gary Paffett	HWA	36	58: 03.639	01
02	Lucas Auer	HWA	36	+ 0-01.449	04th
03	Timo Glock	RMG	36	+ 0-06.514	03
04th	Edoardo Mortara	HWA	36	+ 0-08.198	07th
05	Pascal Wehrlein	HWA	36	+ 0:11.391	05
06th	Bruno Spengler	RBM	36	+ 0:15.758	08th
07th	Paul di Resta	HWA	36	+ 0:16,600	12
08th	Daniel Juncadella	HWA	36	+ 0:16.969	13
09	René Rast	Rosberg	36	+ 0:18.268	09
10	Loïc Duval	Phoenix	36	+ 0:19.646	16
11	Marco Wittmann	RMG	36	+ 0:20.740	02
12	Joel Eriksson	RBM	36	+ 0:21.294	10
13	Nico Müller	Dept	36	+ 0:22.421	14th
14th	Mike Rockenfeller	Phoenix	36	+ 0:23.987	11
15th	Augusto Farfus	RMG	36	+ 0:28.724	06th
16	Philipp Eng	RBM	36	+ 0:29,486	15th
17th	Mattias Ekström	Dept	36	+ 0:30.649	18th
18th	Robin Frijns	Dept	36	+ 0:31.660	17th
19th	Jamie Green	Rosberg	36	+ 0:44.973	19th

Race 2

Item	driver	team	Round	time	begin
01	Timo Glock	RMG	36	58: 04.067	01
02	Mike Rockenfeller	Phoenix	36	+ 0-02.011	09
03	Gary Paffett	HWA	36	+ 0-03.099	10
04th	Joel Eriksson	RBM	36	+ 0-03.481	03
05	Loïc Duval	Phoenix	36	+ 0-03.787	12
06th	Pascal Wehrlein	HWA	36	+ 0-04.062	11
07th	René Rast	Rosberg	36	+ 0-04.782	02
08th	Bruno Spengler	RBM	36	+ 0-08.795	19th
09	Paul di Resta	HWA	36	+ 0:11.015	06th
10	Augusto Farfus	RMG	36	+ 0:11.195	13
11	Marco Wittmann	RMG	36	+ 0:14,523	08th
12	Robin Frijns	Dept	36	+ 0:15.026	14th
13	Nico Müller	Dept	36	+ 0:17.791	15th
14th	Philipp Eng	RBM	36	+ 0:18.236	17th
15th	Lucas Auer	HWA	36	+ 0:22.036	05
16	Mattias Ekström	Dept	36	+ 0:23,081	18th
17th	Jamie Green	Rosberg	36	+ 0:23.786	16
18th	Daniel Juncadella	HWA	36	+ 0:32.926	07th
-	Edoardo Mortara	HWA	02	DNF	04th

Championship stands after the weekend

The first ten of both races received 25, 18, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 and 1 point (s), respectively. The first three of both qualifying sessions received 3, 2 and 1 point (s) respectively.

Driver ranking

Item driver team Points 01  Timo Glock RMG 44 02  Gary Paffett HWA 43 03  Mike Rockenfeller Phoenix 18th 04th  Lucas Auer HWA 18th 05  Pascal Wehrlein HWA 18th 06th  Joel Eriksson RBM 13 07th  Edoardo Mortara HWA 12 08th  Bruno Spengler RBM 12 09  Loïc Duval Phoenix 11

Item driver team Points 10  René Rast Rosberg 10 11  Paul di Resta HWA 08th 12  Daniel Juncadella HWA 04th 13  Marco Wittmann RMG 02 14th  Augusto Farfus RMG 01 -  Robin Frijns Dept 00 -  Nico Müller Dept 00 -  Philipp Eng RBM 00 -  Jamie Green Rosberg 00

Manufacturer rating

Item	Manufacturer	Points
01	Mercedes	103
02	BMW	072
03	Audi	039

Web links

• DTM - Liveticker, Hockenheim I, Race I sport1.de, accessed on May 27, 2018
• DTM - Liveticker, Hockenheim I, Race II sport1.de, accessed on May 27, 2018

Individual evidence

1. ↑ DTM Hockenheim I 2018 1st practice - results Motorsport-Magazin.com, accessed on May 24, 2018.
2. ↑ DTM Hockenheim I 2018 2nd training - results Motorsport-Magazin.com, accessed on May 24, 2018.
3. ↑ DTM Hockenheim I 2018 Qualifying - Result Motorsport-Magazin.com, accessed on May 27, 2018.
4. ↑ DTM Hockenheim I 2018 fastest lap - result Motorsport-Magazin.com, accessed on May 24, 2018.
5. ↑ DTM Hockenheim I 2018 3rd Training - Results Motorsport-Magazin.com, accessed on May 27, 2018.
6. ↑ DTM Hockenheim I 2018 Qualifying - Result Motorsport-Magazin.com, accessed on May 27, 2018.
7. ↑ DTM Hockenheim I 2018 fastest lap - result Motorsport-Magazin.com, accessed on May 27, 2018.