So, before going on tour on other european tracks DTM again returns to the track of Germany. In this race weekend pilots had to go to the only in the championship city track in Nuremberg - Norisring.
Qualification race on the eve of the race were interrupted by a red flag. The current champion of DTM René Rast at the exit of the turn touched the back of his car wall. His Audi was seriously damaged, but Rust was able to continue racing.
The second time in his career Edoardo Mortara was able to finish first on Norisring. His last victory was here in 2016, and on Saturday the Mercedes-AMG pilot again won the race for Norisring, the only city road in the DTM calendar. After 68 laps he finished only 0.81 seconds faster than Gary Paffett. Paffet won the fight for the second line from Philipp Eng, who eventually came to finish fifth and Wittmann. The third place on the podium was won by the local hero Marco Wittmann with his BMW. For Marco, who was born in Fürth, near Nuremberg, it was the first in his career podium in the home stage of the DTM in Norisring. It is symbolic that he received the award for third place from the hands of the mayor of Nuremberg. Closed the top ten Timo Glock in which by the way there was not a single pilot of Audi, Ingolstadt remained in the first race without points.
On Saturday, in addition to the race, there was another important event. Chairman of the Japanese racing series SUPER GT GTA Masaaki Bandoh and the head of DTM Gerhard Berger introduced the new rules of "CLASS 1" for DTM and SUPER GT. Since 2019 DTM will switch to a single racing schedule from the Japanese series. In addition, in 2019, it is expected to hold joint stages of DTM and Super GT. All this should preserve the interest of investors and viewers to the championship after the departure of Mercedes from it.
Sunday qualification gave a small surprise. After weak results in the past stages, Argentinean Dani Juncadella won his first pole position. The best pilot of BMW was Bruno Spengler at the sixth position. But Audi's failures continued, and again none of the cars was in the top ten.
The second race gave a lot of joyful moments to the whole city. After all, Marco Wittmann won the first race for the first time. Marco had to wait nine races in Norisring to finally win a fantastic victory. Starting with the seventh position, he had to win several duels and on the 24th lap he managed to get around Edoardo Mortara and eventually break out into the leaders. Started with pole position Dani Juncadella finally came to finish third having won his first podium. In the fourth position, the BMW pilot Bruno Spengler finished. Audi Pilots Nico Muller and Robin Frijns in the second race came to the finish line on the 7th and 8th line respectively. Championship leader Gary Paffett was unable to convert his second place in the qualification into points and eventually he came to finish only 13th.
In the DTM standings, after eight of the 20 DTM races this season, Gary Paffett remains with the leader with 99 points. Mortara moved from second place Timo Glock, who in this weekend as in the previous scored only one point, the Italian rider 93 points, Glock - 92. Marco Wittmann shares the third line with the former pilot of Formula 1, he also has 92 points. Closes the top five best Paul Di Resta with 87 points.
At the next stage of the DTM will go to the Netherlands on the road Zandvoort where the next racing weekend will be held from 13 to 15 July.
