Dani Juncadella scores his first DTM success at Brands Hatch

Daniel Juncadella will have had to wait for its fifth season in DTM to open his victory counter in the German touring championship. The Catalan driver took advantage of the first race of the weekend at Brands Hatch in England to score a double pole position and victory this Saturday.

And yet, the native of Barcelona had largely missed his action when the lights went out, leaving his teammate at Mercedes Lucas Auer, second on the grid, takes control of the race.

A few meters further, René Rast (Audi) also passes Juncadella to gain second place, before passing through the pit lane at the end of the first lap, imitated by Robin Frijns, Loïc duval (Audi), Bruno Spengler, Timo Glock (BMW) and Paul di Resta (Mercedes).

The strategies were thus put in place, but the race was partly neutralized under the Slow Zone regime, following Duval's straight-on move at the second turn following his pit stop.

Juncadella in control

Once the Frenchman's car was evacuated, the entire circuit was put back under green flag, and Lucas Auer continued his domination until the ninth lap and his passage through the pitlane. On his return to the track, the former resident of the European Championship F3 cannot resist Dani Juncadella and Augusto Farfus (BMW), who returned from the pits earlier in the race.

At the front, Edoardo Mortara and Pascal Wehrlein (Mercedes) will be the two drivers to lengthen their first stint as much as possible, but the strategy of a stop postponed beyond the 10th lap does not work.

Juncadella, Farfus, Auer, Rast, Philipp Eng (BMW), Gary Paffett (Mercedes) overtake the previous two leaders and set off to attack the last part of the event.

For the return of the DTM to Brands Hatch, Juncadella, one of the rare drivers to have driven on this track over the last two years in the Blancpain GT Series with AKKA-ASP, gradually widens the gap on Farfus throughout the end of the race and won with a little less than eight seconds in advance under the checkered flag against Farfus.

Auer completes the podium 10″ ahead of Rast, Eng, who resisted Paffett's final attacks well in the final loops, Wehrlein, Mortara, Marco Wittmann (BMW) and Mike Rockenfeller (Audi).

In the fight for the championship, Paffett is doing well since the leader of the ranking increases his lead over Paul di Resta (Mercedes), only 16th this Saturday at home.

The second race of the weekend will take place tomorrow at 14:30 p.m.

Race 1 ranking