Di Resta leads Mercedes 1-2 in opening Hungarian race

Paul di Resta has scored his first DTM victory in exactly a year after leading a Mercedes 1-2 ahead of Lucas Auer in the opening Hungarian DTM race.

The former F1-star, who took his only win of 2017 at the Hungaroring last season, made a return to the top step of the rostrum by beating Auer to the line by 0.6s after 35 laps.

Crucially, Di Resta's first win of the year has moved the former DTM champion up to third in the points standings, while his team mate Gary Paffett has retaken the lead of the championship from Timo Glock as Mercedes tighten their grip on the early title chase.

Team Abt's Nico Muller completed the podium in third for Audi ahead of reigning champion Rene Rast, who superbly bounced back from his Lausitzring horror shunt in fourth.

Edoardo Mortara and Gary Paffett were fifth and sixth for Mercedes ahead of Audi trio Robin Frijns, Loic Duval and Jamie Green in eighth, ninth and tenth.

Daniel Juncadella secured the final points paying position in tenth.

While Mercedes and Audi excelled at the front of the field, BMW, in contrast, struggled around the Hungarian Grand Prix venue. Bruno Spengler proved to be highest placed M4 runner in 12th as BMW failed to register a point in the opening race.