Thanks to Wittmann and Mortara’s incident at the start, Ekström won his last DTM race in 2016 ahead of Adrien Tambay and Daniel Juncadella while Mortara retired.
Edoardo Mortara started on pole position ahead of Mattias Ekström and Marco Wittmann. Robert Wickens, following a mistake on the first grid, needed to start on last position.
Dramatic start as Mortara struggled to get away, he squeezed Wittmann and the BMW driver went spinning as Mortara got a puncture and was forced to pit. Jamie Green was also forced to retire. At the end of the first lap, Ekström was first ahead of Adrien Tambay and Daniel Juncadella. Marco Wittmann was fourth but with suspected damages on his car.
Tambay could stay with Ekström within the one second gap for the first third of the race. Juncadella was rather lonely in P3 while Wittmann was holding up Martin behind him.
At the thirteenth lap, the first drivers pitted: Da Costa, Blomqvist, Rockenfeller, Wickens and Mortara. Martin was the first driver of the top 10 to pit three laps later, two minutes before reaching the mid-term of the race. Wittmann pitted on lap 19 and got out just ahead of Blomqvist. Juncadella and Glock stopped right after.
Tambay stopped on lap 22 and tried to undercut Ekström as he got out in P3, way ahead of Juncadella. Ekström pitted two laps after the Frenchman and managed to stay ahead.
With thirteen minutes to go, every driver had pitted and Ekström was leading from Tambay and Juncadella. Da Costa had gained one position to Wittmann in the pitstop process but the German driver took back his fourth place with twelve minutes to go. Mortara put an end to his nightmare of a race with one lap to go.
Mattias Ekström took his first win of the 2016 at the Hungaroring ahead of Adrien Tambay who claimed his first podium of the season and equaled his best result in DTM, and Daniel Juncadella who claimed his first podium of the season as well. Wittmann, Da Costa, Blomqvist, Glock, Scheider, Martin and Rockenfeller completed the top 10.
In the championship, Mortara (162) did not score any point but the battle for the title with Wittmann (188) would continue until Hockenheim.