Schneider celebrates first victory of the season
Brands Hatch. With his first victory of the season, Bernd
Schneider has shown that he is also a force to be reckoned
with in 2007. An exciting race covering 83 laps at the 1.929
kilometres long circuit south-east of London saw the driver
from the Saarland taking the win with his AMG Mercedes C-Class
against the two Audi drivers Martin Tomczyk and Mattias Ekström.
After two times’ Formula 1 world champion, Mika Häkkinen,
who started from pole, had been leading the race for a while,
the Finn eventually came home in fourth place.
The race in detail
Spectators over the weekend: 18,000
Air temperature: 21.4 °C
Track temperature: 26.6 °C
Start Spengler takes the lead from Häkkinen as Rockenfeller
is stuck at the start. Di Resta and Rockenfeller off at Druids
independent from each other. Winkelhock and Carroll also off,
but they can continue.
Lap 2 Safety car is out
Lap 4 Spengler is leading from Häkkinen, Ekström,
Prémat, Schneider, Abt, Tomczyk and Green
Lap 5 Ickx into the pits
Lap 6 La Rosa in the pits, Stoddart is waiting at the pit
lane entry
Lap 7 Restart after this lap. Scheider into the pits
Lap 8 Restart. Paffett and Lauda tangle at Hill, Lauda through
the grass. Green into the pits
Lap 9 Schneider into the pits
Lap 10 Paffett into the pits
Lap 11 La Rosa's stop is not valid, as he came in during the
safety car period
Lap 12 Abt into the pits
Lap 15 Spengler remains in the lead from Häkkinen, Ekström,
Prémat, Tomczyk, Luhr, Margaritis, Winkelhock, Carroll
and la Rosa. Drive through for Ickx because of exceeding pit
lane speed limit
Lap 17 Lauda, Ickx into the pits
Lap 18 Luhr into the pits
Lap 20 Prémat into the pits
Lap 21 Scheider into the pits for his second mandatory pit
stop
Lap 22 Häkkinen, Margaritis into the pits
Lap 25 Spengler is leading from Ekström, Tomczyk, Winkelhock,
Carroll, La Rosa, Schneider, Häkkinen, Abt and Prémat
Lap 29 Green into the pits
Lap 31 Häkkinen, Luhr into the pits
Lap 32 Prémat, Paffett into the pits. Schneider and
Carroll side by side in the battle for fourth, Schneider goes
through
Lap 34 Winkelhock, Carroll into the pits, battle between Häkkinen
and Ekström
Lap 35 Ekström, Schneider, Abt into the pits
Lap 36 Spengler into the pits
Lap 37 Tomczyk, Ickx into the pits
Lap 39 Margaritis into the pits. Vanina Icks tangles with
Paffett at Hill and spins into the grass, continues
Lap 42 Lauda into the pits
Lap 43 Halfway through the race, Spengler is leading from
Ekström, Tomczyk, la Rosa, Häkkinen, Schneider,
Stoddart, Carroll, Green and Prémat
Lap 44 Warning for Ickx. Stoddart into the pits
Lap 47 Ekström into the pits
Lap 48 Spengler into the pits, stalls, continues. Schneider
and Häkkinen are nose-to-tail. Spengler re-joins behind
Ekström in fourth.
Lap 49 Winkelhock into the pits
Lap 54 Schneider overtakes Häkkinen for second, la Rosa
comes in for his first pit stop. Ekström attacks Häkkinen
for third place. Carroll into the pits
Lap 57 Under braking before Clearways, Ekström overtakes
Hakkinen on the inside for third place
Lap 60 Stoddart into the pits
Lap 61 Race leader Tomczyk is 22.9 seconds clear of Bernd
Schneider in second place. Carroll into the pits
Lap 62 Tomczyk into the pits
Lap 63 Tomczyk rejoins in second place behind Schneider and
just ahead of Ekström
Lap 65 Tomczyk attacks Schneider, he is only 0.1 seconds behind
Lap 68 Schneider is leading from Tomczyk, Ekström, Häkkinen,
Spengler, Green, Prémat, Abt, Margaritis, Paffett
Lap 79 It seems like the positions have been taken: Schneider
is 0.5 seconds clear of Tomczyk, Ekström is another 0.9
seconds down in third
Lap 80 Ickx off the track at Hill
Lap 83 Final lap. Schneider scores his first win of the season
from Tomczyk, Ekström, Häkkinen, Spengler, Green,
Prémat and Abt.
Schneider, Tomczyk celebrate double German victory
in England
A perfect pit stop strategy, great overtaking manoeuvres
and a vast experience – these factors were the basis
for the first DTM season victory for Bernd Schneider (Mercedes-Benz)
at Brands Hatch. The five times’ DTM champion won an
exciting race over 83 laps at the 1,929 kilometres long circuit,
the shortest track on the DTM calendar. “We had a perfect
strategy and a great car. Boys, you are just awesome. Now,
it is party time”, the happy race winner told his crew
over the radio. One of the first people to congratulate him
was the new rising star in Formula 1: “Lewis Hamilton
called me directly after the race and congratulated me”,
Schneider told. For the man from St. Ingbert, it was already
the 42nd victory in the DTM. Another German driver was delighted
to finish second. Only 0.543 seconds down, Martin Tomczyk
crossed the finish line with his Audi A4 DTM and took over
the lead in the championship standings. Third place at the
historic race track in Kent county went to the 2004 DTM champion
and last year’s winner at Brands Hatch, Swede Mattias
Ekström (Audi).
The fourth season round of the DTM provided plenty of action.
There were many position changes at the front. Pole-sitter
Mika Häkkinen (Mercedes-Benz) lost the duel at the startline
to his Canadian team-mate, Bruno Spengler. On lap 54 and 57,
the Finn had to let the eventual winner Schneider and Mattias
Ekström past. Häkkinen finished fourth in the race
in the south-east of England. Spengler had problems during
his second pit stop, lost valuable positions and finished
fifth ahead of fellow Mercedes-Benz driver, Green. Alexandre
Prémat (Audi A4 DTM) also failed to make the best out
of his good third grid position and crossed the finish line
in seventh place.
The race had an untimely end for erstwhile points leader,
Paul di Resta. Soon after the start, several cars collided.
Di Resta and Mike Rockenfeller had to park their two cars.
After this race, there is a new leader in the points’
standings. With 20 points, Tomczyk is now in the lead ahead
of Ekström (18) and Schneider (17.5). With 16 points,
di Resta still is closely following the leading trio. In a
fortnight, the 20 DTM drivers are heading towards Nuremberg.
The Norisring, the only street circuit on the DTM calendar,
is hosting the DTM at the weekend from June 22nd till 24th.
Bernd Schneider (winner, Original-Teile AMG Mercedes):
“I am totally happy with my first win of the season
and with our perfect strategy. After Ekström had completed
his second pit stop, I knew that the remaining 30 laps would
be tough and that I couldn’t make a mistake. That has
worked out very well, because today, my car was perfect.”
Martin Tomczyk (2nd place, Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline):
“Now that was a tough race! Second place and the lead
in the championship standings are the result of hard work
by my team. They gave me a great car and worked out a perfect
strategy. Towards the end, I was having a great fight with
Bernd. I was a little bit quicker, but as overtaking is so
difficult here at Brands Hatch, I didn’t want to take
any risks, because both of us could have ended up in the gravel
trap. Now, I am the points leader going to my home race at
Norisring. It couldn’t have been any better.”
Mattias Ekström (3rd place, Audi Sport Team
Abt Sportsline): “A great race, a great car,
nice and fair position fights. Today, it was really fun. The
key to the podium was my second pit stop. I didn’t really
expect this result. Now, I am looking forward to Norisring.“
Mercedes-Benz motorsport director Norbert Haug:
“I was watching the race live together with Fernando
Alonso and Lewis Hamilton and they were impressed. They are
big DTM fans. The race was impressive and the team had a great
strategy. Surely, we could have been better with Mika Häkkinen
and Bruno Spengler. But Bernd Schneider deserves a compliment.
Today, he was really strong and he showed an impressive performance,
making no mistake whatsoever.”
Audi motorsport director Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich: “I
am very happy with the performance shown by Martin Tomczyk
and Mattias Ekström. They both drove a very good race.
Eventually, having two different strategies also turned out
to be decisive. Basically, I hadn’t expected to be so
strong here with the 2007-spec cars. It was a fair and exciting
DTM race here at Brands Hatch, just like the fans want to
see it. I am also happy with the performance of the 2006-spec
cars. The team Phoenix was strong, both of their cars were
the best-placed 2006-spec cars in the race.”
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