Having claimed pole place, two-time champion Wittmann led from begin to end to change into the fifth completely different driver to win a race within the first six contests of the 12 months.
In comparable trend to Saturday’s opening encounter, the protection automobile was deployed after the opening lap to recuperate the stranded Mercedes of Vincent Abril, who was pitched into the gravel lure at Flip 1 by one other AMG driver Philip Ellis.
On the restart, Wittmann coated off Auer going into the primary nook, earlier than continuing to construct a small however vital hole over his Winward Mercedes rival.
The one actual risk the Walkenhorst Motorsport driver confronted throughout the race was after the pitstop part, having elected to take his obligatory cease two laps after Auer.
However Wittmann managed to return to the observe simply forward of Auer after which fended off the Austrian on his out-lap, shortly pulling away by over a second.
Auer was later handed a five-second penalty for a pitstop infringement, sealing Wittmann a primary win within the DTM because the first race at Manufacturers Hatch in 2019.
Auer’s penalty promoted the only real remaining HRT Mercedes of Maximilian Gotz into second, the 35-year-old having jumped quite a lot of drivers within the pits with an early cease on lap eight.
Lawson ran third early on behind Wittmann and Auer following a fast begin from sixth on the grid however slipped behind Gotz within the pits, earlier than a penalty for Auer promoted him once more to the ultimate spot on the rostrum.
Liam Lawson, AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo.
Picture by: Gruppe C GmbH
The end result helped the Purple Bull Formulation 1 junior to carve into the lead of championship chief van der Linde, who may end no increased than eighth with 25kg of success ballast on his automobile.
Final 12 months’s runner-up Nico Muller bounced again from a trio of inauspicious races to complete fourth forward of the penalised Auer, aided by a late pitstop that left him with more energizing tyres in the direction of the top.
Alex Albon recovered from a tough qualifying within the second of the 2 AF Corse Ferraris, ending sixth on the flag and consolidating fifth spot within the championship.
Rowe Racing BMW driver Sheldon van der Linde was one of many final drivers within the discipline to finish his obligatory pitstop, leaping from sixteenth on the grid to seventh.
His elder brother Kelvin was categorized 4 seconds adrift in eighth, having efficiently held off the charging T3 Motorsport Lamborghini of Esteban Muth, regardless of carrying further weight on his Abt Sportsline Audi.
Kelvin van der Linde’s team-mate Mike Rockenfeller rounded out the purpose scorers in tenth behind Muth.
Christian Klein’s maiden weekend within the DTM ended with a 14th-place end, a gradual cease for the JP Motorsport McLaren driver dropping him outdoors the highest 10.