Round 2 of the DTM 2017 season was a repeat of what we saw at the season opener in Hockenheim. Lucas Auer and Jamie Green emerged victorious on race 1 and race 2 respectively, and now lead the championship with a gap of 16 points between them.

First up was Auer on Saturday, the Mercedes man staged an epic lights to flag race having started from pole. This was his second straight win of the season. Robert Wickens finished second in another Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM while Rene Rast rounded off the podium in third. Interestingly, Rast who is still a newcomer in DTM did manage to set a new DTM lap record of 1m17.343s.

BMW had a slow day on Saturday, Maxime Martin was the only driver to finish in the top ten, in fourth place. Gary Paffett and Edoardo Mortara finished fifth and sixth for Mercedes, yet another sign of the brand’s strong form this season. Audi ace driver Mattias Ekstrom finished in eighth place ahead of Maro Engel (Mercedes) and Jamie Green (Audi).

Jamie Green showed his incredible racing style once again by starting from last and finishing in the points zone. He was dropped to last after using an illegal tire set. Elsewhere, Nico Muller was the only driver to retire after his Audi suffered a braking problem.

Come race 2, Green was the man to beat just like in Hockenheim. The Brit started from third behind pole sitter Robert Wickens and Tom Blomqvist’s BMW. Green had to wait until lap 31 when his opportunity to overtake Wickens came around, he did so under braking. Next was Ekstrom who overtook the Mercedes driver on the outside. Ekstrom had an interesting story in this race, he started from P8 but pitted immediately after lap one, a very courageous move which soon allowed him to save his tires and move to the front when the drivers ahead made their stops.

Mike Rockenfeller also pitted after one lap, adopting a similar strategy to Ekstrom. It worked out for the Audi driver who finished fifth behind Wickens in third and Paffett in fourth. Nico Muller was lucky in race 2 and finished sixth ahead of Rast, Martin, Wittmann and Auer. Once again BMW had a tough race, Maxime Martin and Wittmann finished 8th and 9th.

The next round will head over to Hungary on June 16.

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