Jamie Green claims maiden DTM victory in Barcelona
Jamie Green is the winner of the ninth DTM season round
at the Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona. At the 2.977 kilometres
long track, the Briton won from his fellow Mercedes-Benz drivers
Bruno Spengler and Paul di Resta. For Green, it was his maiden
victory in the DTM. The points’ scoring positions were
completed by Alexandros Margaritis, Gary Paffett, Mathias
Lauda (all Mercedes-Benz), Mike Rockenfeller and Lucas Luhr
(both Audi). On the 50th of 58 laps, Audi had withdrawn all
its remaining cars from the race as they had judged the driving
conduct of the Mercedes-Benz drivers as being unfair. Before
the season final at the Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg,
Mattias Ekström is leading the drivers’ standings
with 44 points from Bruno Spengler (42 points) and Martin
Tomczyk (40 points). An extensive press release with quotes
from the drivers and motorsport directors will follow shortly.
The race in detail
Spectators over the weekend: 42,000
Weather conditions: sunny
Air temperature: 27.1 °C
Track temperature: 34.9 °C
Start Tomczyk takes the lead, good start for Margaritis.
Häkkinen is second. La Rosa spins at the first corner.
Lap 1 Kristensen spins after a collision with Paffett.
Lap 2 Stoddart into the gravel trap at Campsa.
Lap 3 Tomczyk is leading from Häkkinen, Spengler, Schneider,
Green, Ekström. Drive through penalty for Gary Paffett
because of a jump start. At the end of the lap, he comes in.
Lap 4 Abt off the track,continues.
Lap 6 Mattias Ekström and Tom Kristensen are the first
drivers to come in for his pit stop.
Lap 7 Tomczyk and Häkkinen collide under braking for
the first corner. Both into the grass, Häkkinen's car
is moving slowly. Rockenfeller into the pits.
Lap 8 Spengler is now leading from Schneider, Green, Margaritis
amd Scheider. Häkkinen into the pits - retires. Tomczyk
has dropped back to eleventh.
Lap 9 Paffett and Abt side by side, battling for 15th place.
Lap 10 Tomczyk and Lauda battling for ninth, Tomczyk goes
through. Häkkinen under investigation by the stewards.
Lap 13 Ekström and La Rosa battle for twelfth, side by
side, both off into the gravel trap. Paffett into the pits.
Lap 14 Ekström crawling back to the pits. Schneider,
Scheider, Winkelhock, Ekström into the pits – retires.
Lap 15 Green, Margaritis into the pits. Schneider int the
pits - retires. Spengler into the pits.
Lap 17 Di Resta into the pits.
Lap 20 Ickx into the pits. The following drivers are under
investigation: Spengler, Scheider, Abt, Margaritis.
Lap 22 Spengler overtakes Prémat as the Frenchman runs
wide at the first corner. Tomczyk into the pits for his first
stop.
Lap 23 Green, Prémat, Di Resta into the pits.
Lap 26 Tomczyk takes the escape road at the first corner.
Margaritis, Winkelhock into the pits.
Lap 27 Scheider, Lauda into the pits.
Lap 28 Spengler is closing up on Luhr, who has yet to make
his first pit stop.
Lap 30 Spengler alongside Luhr, trying to overtake him, but
Spengler retains his position. Kristensen, Abt into the pits.
Lap 31 Drive through penalty for Spengler. Comes in at the
end of the lap. Tomczyk into the pits for his second stop.
Lap 32 Spengler rejoins just ahead of Green, who is fourth.
Rockenfeller, Spengler in for their second pit stops.
Lap 33 Tomczyk into the pits - retires.
Lap 35 Luhr into the pits for his second stop. The following
drivers get a drive-through for setting the fastest sector
time uinder yellow: Scheider, Abt, Margaritis and Paffett.
Lap 36 Paffett, Abt into the pits.
Lap 37 Scheider off the track after collision with Lauda.
Lap 39 Green is leading from Luhr, who is the only one in
the top six who has yet to make his second pit stop. Di Resta
is third from Rockemfeller, Spengler and Prémat.
Lap 40 Lauda under investigation.
Lap 42 Lauda into the pits for his second stop.
Lap 44 Ickx into the pits.
Lap 45 Abt into the pits.
Lap 46 Luhr into the pits for his second stop.
Lap 47 Spengler and Rockenfeller collide while battling for
third, Spengler gets through.
Lap 47 Winkelhock into the pits, apparently with suspension
damage – retires.
Lap 48 Prémat into the pits.
Lap 49 Abt, Rockenfeller, Luhr, Kristensen into the pits.
Lap 50 Audi has withdrawn all its cars.
Lap 52 Spengler has overtaken Di Resta and is now second.
The current order: Green is leading from Spengler, Di Resta,
Margaritis, Paffett and Lauda.
Lap 58 Final lap. Green wins from Spengler, Di Resta, Margaritis,
Paffett and Lauda.
Hard fights in Barcelona – title race remains open
Barcelona. After a hotly contested ninth season round in
Barcelona, the decision in the battle for the title in the
DTM has been postponed to the final race of the year at Hockenheim.
After much-discussed and disputable position fights, Audi
decide to withdraw all its cars from the race after 50 of
58 laps. After that, victory went to Jamie Green with the
AMG Mercedes C-Class from his fellow Mercedes-Benz drivers
Bruno Spengler and Paul di Resta. For Green, it was the first
DTM victory of his career.
The reason for the decision by Audi’s motorsport director
Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich were many duels that were too harsh from
Audi’s point of view. Among others, Mika Häkkinen
and the runner-up in the points’ standings, Audi driver
Martin Tomczyk, collided on lap seven. On lap 13, Mercedes-Benz
driver Daniel la Rosa collided with the championship leader,
Mattias Ekström with his Audi A4 DTM. All four drivers
had to retire from the race.
In front of 42,000 spectators during the race weekend, emotions
were running high in the pit lane as well. The motorsport
directors of both manufacturers, Norbert Haug (Mercedes-Benz)
and Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich (Audi) shared the view that the emotions
will cool down and expressed themselves in an optimistic way
for the season final at the Hockenheimring in three weeks’
time to bring a sporty and fair decision in the drivers’
standings of the 2007 DTM.
The tenth and final DTM round of the year will be taking
place at the Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg, October
14th.
Jamie Green (winner, Salzgitter AMG Mercedes):
“I am totally relieved. When you are competing as the
reigning champion of the Formula 3 Euro Series, expectations
are quite high. During the season, I have been able to show
that I can live up to these expectations. But often enough,
I also dropped back while on course for a podium finish because
of stupid situations, for which others were to blame. But
that is typical for the DTM. It is up and down, it is exciting
and fascinating. I am happy that I got my campaign underway
again with this victory. This victory allows me to pay back
something to all those who have kept their faith in me.”
Bruno Spengler (2nd place, DaimlerChrysler Bank AMG
Mercedes): “The eight points that I managed
to score today are well deserved and I am happy for being
only two points down on Mattias Ekström in the championship.
The other drivers weren’t making life particularly easy
for me either, but these were all position fights and therefore
were all right for me. I am just happy that I made it to the
finish with my car in one piece. In the final at Hockenheim,
I will be giving everything, as in every race. I am looking
forward to an exciting showdown with three title candidates.”
Paul di Resta (3rd place, JAWA4U.de AMG Mercedes):
“The DTM season has been running well for me. It is
my learning year in the DTM and I have learned a lot, also
from mistakes. At Hockenheim, we can do what we already did
in the first race, which is finishing on the podium. There,
my car was really strong. Hopefully, I can further improve
next year.”
Mercedes-Benz motorsport director Norbert Haug:
“Now, we have to take a close look at the situation
and only after that, one can make a thorough judgement. You
always have to look at the overall picture first and then
draw a conclusion. At the end of the main straight, Mika Häkkinen
was much quicker than Martin Tomczyk. Maybe, the overtaking
manoeuvre was a little bit optimistic, but he didn’t
do it on purpose. Mattias Ekström was driving very harshly
in the situation with Daniel la Rosa. According to me, there
was no reason to withdraw the cars from the race. I want to
emphasise at this occasion that for us, there was no team
order and that the actions at the track were by no means a
revenge for Zandvoort. We would never do something like that.
Now, emotions will cool down and we will see an exciting season
final at Hockenheim.”
Audi motorsport director Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich: “Surely,
the decision to withdraw all the cars from the race was far
from easy for me. I am aware that this has cost us points
as well that might be important in the end. We have come to
Barcelona to have a fair race. But the things that happened
here on the track were initially much and in the end, with
the situation against Mike Rockenfeller, too much. That was
definitely not what we had wanted to see here. Motorsport
must be fair competition and that wasn’t the case in
this race. Of course, cars touch on the track in a hard and
fair race. But when the contact is the reason that cars retire,
it is a form of behaviour that we do not want to see in motorsport.
The decision to withdraw the cars from the race was meant
to show that we don’t want that.”
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