Green victorious at Lausitzring, Germany.

Jamie Green takes the checkered

The opposition came off second-best in the DTM race at the Lausitzring on Saturday as four Audi drivers decided the battle for victory in the third race of the season among themselves. Jamie Green, who had already won the first race of the 2015 season at the Hockenheimring was first across the line after 32 laps. He had a margin of 4.261 seconds from second-placed Edoardo Mortara. Another Hockenheim race winner, Mattias Ekström, claimed the final spot on the podium.

"I am particularly proud of this victory," Green said. "First of all, I am not one hundred percent fit due to illness, and secondly, I had to drive the entire race without DRS." The Brit had the following explanation for the fact that it was still enough for his second win: "My Audi RS 5 DTM perfectly suits my driving style, a dream start into the season. And I want to add to that tomorrow."

Second-placed Mortara lost his lead in the drivers' standings and was anything but happy with that, "but Lausitzring really isn't one of my favorite tracks and from that point of view, second place is fantastic. On Friday, the set-up of my car wasn't quite perfect, but in today's practice, we were able to make the decisive step ahead." Ekstrom was happy, too. "We already laid the foundation for our success in pre-season testing." With a grin, he added: "I reckon, the holidays were shorter in Ingolstadt than in Stuttgart and in Munich."

Miguel Molina, who started the race from pole position following a strong performance in qualifying in the afternoon, eventually had to make do with fourth place. "My tires degraded more than those of the drivers behind me, because I pushed hard in the opening stages to pull a gap and to get out of the DRS window," the Spaniard said. "Towards the end of the race, there was nothing left I could do."

Jamie Green

The opposition had no answer throughout the 40 minutes' distance. Pascal Wehrlein and Robert Wickens finished in fifth and sixth place with their Mercedes-AMG C 63 DTMs. "Today, we could have achieved considerably more," Wehrlein said. "I particularly have to work on my starts, because this year, not one of them worked out perfectly. The clutch is simply not doing what I expect. Thus, I had to work hard in the first half of the race to get into the DRS window behind the drivers in front of me. Once I had managed, time was too short to make up more places and put the Audis under pressure."

Maxime Martin was the best-placed BMW driver in seventh position. "It is really sad that I am the only BMW driver in the top ten in seventh place," the Belgian said. "We have to work hard to close the gap to the competition. Especially the high level of tire wear towards the end of the race prevented me from keeping up with the pace of the front runners."

In the drivers' standings after three of 18 races, the situation becomes clear: Green is leading with 50 points from Mortara (48 points) and Ekström (40 points). Wehrlein is the best-placed Mercedes-Benz driver with 32 points in fourth place. Currently, BMW is well down the order with Martin Tomczyk (12 points) in ninth place.

Next race: The fourth race of the season, also at Lausitzring, will be held today at 14.23 CET, the DTM stars from Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz start into their race with a duration of one hour including a mandatory pit stop.

Saturday Results

Pos	Driver	Team	Car	Behind
1	Jamie Green	Rosberg	Audi	0.000s
2	Edoardo Mortara	Abt	Audi	4.261s
3	Mattias Ekstrom	Abt	Audi	5.220s
4	Miguel Molina	Abt	Audi	6.969s
5	Pascal Wehrlein	HWA	Mercedes	8.122s
6	Robert Wickens	HWA	Mercedes	10.657s
7	Maxime Martin	RMG	BMW	13.014s
8	Timo Scheider	Phoenix	Audi	13.361s
9	Mike Rockenfeller	Phoenix	Audi	16.719s
10	Daniel Juncadella	Mucke	Mercedes	19.619s
11	Bruno Spengler	MTEK	BMW	22.391s
12	Martin Tomczyk	Schnitzer	BMW	27.031s
13	Marco Wittmann	RMG	BMW	28.364s
14	Paul Di Resta	HWA	Mercedes	28.522s
15	Maximilian Gotz	Mucke	Mercedes	29.026s
16	Adrien Tambay	Abt	Audi	29.439s
17	Christian Vietoris	HWA	Mercedes	35.480s
18	Timo Glock	MTEK	BMW	36.370s
19	Antonio Felix da Costa	Schnitzer	BMW	37.537s
20	Nico Muller	Rosberg	Audi	42.297s
21	Lucas Auer	ART	Mercedes	42.480s
22	Tom Blomqvist	RBM	BMW	45.087s
23	Gary Paffett	ART	Mercedes	49.803s
DNF	Augusto Farfus	RBM	BMW	Retirement