Misano DTM: Wittmann takes last-to-first victory

Wittmann had completed just one lap in qualifying after what BMW described as a "failure in the engine area" and lined up 18th on the grid.

He opted to take the strategic gamble of stopping at the end of the first lap, which left him with 38 laps to manage his tyres on a high-wear, high-speed circuit. 

Boosted by an early safety car period that lasted three laps when BMW's Joel Eriksson slowed and pulled off the track at Turn 7, Wittmann began to carve through the field progressively. 

He moved inside the top 10 within the first 13 laps and cycled to the front when polesitter and race leader Rene Rast and the chasing pack made their mandatory pitstops.

R-Motorsport's Ferdinand Habsburg had mirrored Wittmann's strategy as the Aston Martin squad made its usual strategic gamble, meaning Rast had to clear Habsburg before hunting down the leader. 

Lapping around four seconds quicker than Habsburg and two seconds faster than Wittmann initially, Rast cleared the Aston when Habsburg got a poor exit out of Turn 10.

With Rast in clear air, he took over 20s out of Wittmann's lead across the second stint but was only able to close to within 8.2s at the flag, meaning his BMW rival took his second win of the 2019 season. 

Loic Duval rounded off the podium in third place having stormed past Habsburg when the Aston's tyres dropped off late on and having also dispatched BMW's Bruno Spengler.

Spengler took fourth after a storming start from sixth on the grid helped initially lifted him into third after WRT Audi's Jonathan Aberdein made a poor start from the front row. 

Nico Muller and Mike Rockenfeller were matched on strategy, but the former came out on top against his Audi stablemate for fifth place. 

Philipp Eng was seventh after a late duel with BMW teammate Sheldon van der Linde, while Aberdein recovered from a poor start and a delayed pitstop to finish eighth - although the South African remains under investigation over a potential pitlane infringement. 

BMW pair van der Linde and Timo Glock rounded out the top 10. 

MotoGP star Andrea Dovizioso impressed by finishing 12th on his DTM debut, seven seconds behind fellow Audi driver Pietro Fittipaldi in 11th. 

Dovizioso was able to stay ahead of the Aston Martins of Daniel Juncadella, Habsburg and Jake Dennis and the Ducati rider impressed in a flurry of wheel-to-wheel racing mid-race. 

Paul di Resta retired from the race eight laps from home, with Robin Frijns finished 23 laps down after returning to the track after a lengthy delay spent in the pits.

Race results:

Cla	#	Driver	Car	Laps	Gap
1	11	Marco Wittmann	BMW M4 Turbo DTM	39
2	33	René Rast	Audi RS 5 Turbo DTM	39	8.238
3	28	Loic Duval	Audi RS 5 Turbo DTM	39	17.686
4	7	Bruno Spengler	BMW M4 Turbo DTM	39	22.853
5	51	Nico Müller	Audi RS 5 Turbo DTM	39	28.503
6	99	Mike Rockenfeller	Audi RS 5 Turbo DTM	39	32.467
7	25	Philipp Eng	BMW M4 Turbo DTM	39	44.922
8	27	Jonathan Aberdein	Audi RS 5 Turbo DTM	39	47.238
9	31	Sheldon Van Der Linde	BMW M4 Turbo DTM	39	48.347
10	16	Timo Glock	BMW M4 Turbo DTM	39	48.429
11	21	Pietro Fittipaldi	Audi RS 5 Turbo DTM	39	50.043
12	34	Andrea Dovizioso	Audi RS5 DTM	39	57.138
13	23	Daniel Juncadella	Aston Martin Vantage DTM	39	58.948
14	62	Ferdinand Habsburg	Aston Martin Vantage DTM	39	1'01.928
15	76	Jake Dennis	Aston Martin Vantage DTM	39	1'08.229
16	3	Paul di Resta	Aston Martin Vantage DTM	31	8 Laps
	4	Robin Frijns	Audi RS 5 Turbo DTM	16	23 Laps
	47	Joel Eriksson	BMW M4 Turbo DTM	2	37 Laps
View full results