Audi has won the first race of the 2008 DTM season with victory at Hockenheim. Mattias Ekström took the win ahead of fellow Audi drivers Timo Scheider and Tom Kristensen.

Ekström - the 2007 DTM champion - made a cracking start, overtaking pole-man Timo Schieder to take the lead. The Swede then drove a solid race to victory.

Ralf Schumacher had a troubled debut race in his Mercedes C-class. He collided with fellow F1 refugee Christijan Albers at the hairpin and eventually finished a lowly 14th - nearly 50 seconds behind the winner.

Brits Jamie Green, Gary Paffett and Oliver Jarvis finished 6th, 7th and 9th respectively, while Katherine Legge came home 18th and last on her DTM debut.

DTM Round 1 Hockenheim 2008, results
1. Mattias Ekström, Audi A4 DTM - 59min 17.726secs
2. Timo Scheider, Audi A4 DTM - +0.824secs
3. Tom Kristensen, Audi A4 DTM - +19.604secs
4. Bruno Spengler, Mercedes C-Class - +20.872secs
5. Martin Tomczyk, Audi A4 DTM - +21.269secs
6. Jamie Green, Mercedes C-Class - +33.019secs
7. Gary Paffett, Mercedes C-Class - +33.956secs
8. Bernd Schneider, Mercedes C-Class - +34.726secs
9. Oliver Jarvis, Audi A4 DTM - +40.270secs
10. Mike Rockenfeller, Audi A4 DTM - +41.798secs