Tumbo

- Audi A4 DTM quickest car in DTM opening round
- Tenth DTM win for Mattias Ekström
- Serious accident overshadows season opener

With a double victory at Hockenheim, Audi managed a successful start to the 2007 DTM season. 101,000 spectators (throughout the weekend) witnessed an impressive début of the evolution Audi A4 DTM that was the quickest car on all three days of the event. The Swede Mattias Ekström celebrated his tenth victory in the DTM with a flawless race and perfect strategy of Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline. Martin Tomczyk (Germany) bumped Mercedes driver Bruno Spengler from second place on the last lap to complete Audi’s triumph.

For Audi, this was the first success on the current track layout of the German Grand Prix circuit and the first victory at Hockenheim in exactly five years. The double victory might even have turned into a triple exploit of the Audi A4 DTM cars if it had not been for Bruno Spengler hitting Timo Scheider’s car after a driving mistake. The newcomer to Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline thus dropped to ninth place after the crash in which he was not at fault, deprived of the reward for the perfect race he had driven up to that point. Spengler later received a 50-second penalty for his action....

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The result at Hockenheim
1 Mattias Ekström (Red Bull Audi A4 DTM) 27laps in 1h 10m 16.441s
2 Martin Tomczyk (Red Bull Audi A4 DTM) + 3.826s
3 Daniel La Rosa (Mercedes) + 7.057s
4 Alexandros Margaritis (Mercedes) + 8.451s
5 Paul Di Resta (Mercedes) + 9.036s
6 Jamie Green (Mercedes) + 10.913s
7 Bernd Schneider (Mercedes) + 13.743s
8 Gary Paffett (Mercedes) + 14.460s
9 Timo Scheider (GW:plus/Top Service Audi A4 DTM) + 16.859s
10 Mika Häkkinen (Mercedes) + 17.271s
11 Lucas Luhr (Philips Audi A4 DTM) + 33.245s
12 Mike Rockenfeller (S line Audi A4 DTM) + 33.801s
13 Mathias Lauda (Mercedes) + 36.139s
14 Bruno Spengler (Mercedes) + 56.850s
15 Vanina Ickx (Audi A4 DTM) + 1 m05.012s
Not classified:
Christian Abt (Playboy Audi A4 DTM), - 22 laps (collision)
Tom Kristensen (Siemens Audi A4 DTM), - 27 laps (accident)
Susie Stoddart (Mercedes), - 27 laps
Alexandre Prémat (Audi Bank Audi A4 DTM), -27 laps (accident)
Adam Carroll (Audi A4 DTM), - 27 laps (accident)

Choleric

Is it just me or was this just a Audi vs. Mercedes race?

Just_me

yep! Opel used to compete here too but not anymore.

and a swede is the winner thumbs up

Choleric

Wait, so is every DTM race jst between Mercedes and Audi? If so that seems pretty lame.

excuse my ignorance, I don't know anything about DTM.

Just_me

I dont know much about it either but I know its popular in Germany.

Tumbo

Then you should see one race or two. It's my favorite motorsport. Even more exciting then F1. And it's very big in europe, not only in Germany.

Ultimate Car Guy

Well done Audi!

I wish this racing series gets more coverage around the world. I'd like to see Hakkinen and Aleisi race again.

far2000

so who is the current champion? which team won last year? merc or audi?