Paul di Resta claims maiden DTM victory in the Lausitz
Klettwitz. Paul di Resta (Mercedes-Benz) is the man of the
weekend: after his maiden pole position on Saturday, the 22-year
old went on to claim his maiden victory in the most popular
international touring car series on Sunday. After 51 laps
at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz, di Resta crossed the finish line
with his AMG Mercdes C-Class in first place. With 1.18.938
minutes, di Resta also set a new lap record for DTM cars at
the 3.478 kilometres long track in the Lower Lausitz region.
For Mercedes-Benz, it was the 144th victory in history of
the DTM. The Scot was followed home by Audi driver, Timo Scheider,
who came second, 5.562 seconds down. Mattias Ekström
(Audi) claimed the final podium slot by finishing third. In
the fourth season round, Martin Tomczyk (Audi) came fourth
from Jamie Green, Bruno Spengler and Bernd Schneider (all
Mercedes-Benz). Frenchman Alexandre Prémat was the
best driver with a year-old car, scoring one point for the
drivers’ standings. In the championship points, Timo
Scheider extended his lead with his second place. After four
of eleven races, he is leading with 26 points from Paul di
Resta (23 points) and Jamie Green (21 points). An extensive
press release with quotes from the drivers and the motorsport
directors will follow shortly.
The race at a glance
Spectators during the racing weekend: 80,000
Air temperature 13.7 °C
Asphalt temperature: 15.0 °C
Start Di Resta takes the lead from Spengler, Kristensen runs
wide coming onto the back stretch after contact Prémat
and spins.
Lap 1 Di Resta leads by 1.6 seconds from Spengler, Scheider,
Ekström, Tomczyk and Green. Kristensen has lost the bonnet
of his car.
Lap 2 Jarvis has overtaken Winkelhock and is tenth.
Lap 3 Winkelhock has an apparent technical failure under braking
before the first corner and hits the pit wall, severely damaging
the right rear part of his car. The safety car is being deployed.
Kristensen into the pits for repair.
Lap 6 Racing resumes. No position changes.
Lap 7 Bernd Schneider attacks Rockenfeller, overtakes him
before the first corner and is now seventh. Di Resta already
has a gap of 1.6 seconds on second-placed Spengler.
Lap 8 Ekström attacks Scheider for third place, closely
followed by Tomczyk.
Lap 9 Di Resta's margin is already 3.6 seconds.
Lap 11 Bodywork parts flying off Tom Kristensen's car after
he runs over the kerbstones.
Lap 12 Paul di Resta sets a fastest lap time of 1.19.302,
a new lap record for DTM race cars at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz.
Lap 13 And yet another fastest lap for di Resta: 1.19.255.
Lap 15 First pit stops: Spengler, Scheider, Green, Rockenfeller,
Prémat, Paffett, Albers.
Lap 16 Di Resta, Ekström, Lauda, Schumacher, Legge into
the pits. Scheider returns on the track ahead of Spengler.
Lap 17 Blue flags for Stoddart, Legge and Kristensen. Tomczyk,
Engel, Stoddart into the pits.
Lap 18 Kristensen into the pits. Tomczyk also ahead of Spengler.
And yet another fastest lap for di Resta: 1.18.938.
Lap 19 Schneider into the pits.
Lap 20 Blue flags for Jarvis.
Lap 21 Green into the pits, the first driver to come in for
his second mandatory stop.
Lap 22 Warning for Jarvis. Blue flag for Albers. Jarvis into
the pits for his first stop.
Lap 23 Current order: Di Resta is leading from Scheider, Ekström,
Tomczyk, Spengler, Schneider, Rockenfeller, Prémat,
Paffett and Engel. Spengler, Schumacher into the pits.
Lap 24 Schneider into the pits. Blue flag for Lauda. Lauda,
Albers into the pits.
Lap 25 Rockenfeller, Stoddart into the pits.
Lap 26 Prémat into the pits.
Lap 27 Scheider, Engel, Kristensen into the pits.
Lap 27 Scheider into the pits.
Lap 28 Di Resta, Paffett into the pits.
Lap 29 Ekström into the pits.
Lap 30 Blue flag for Katherine Legge. Tomczyk, Legge into
the pits.
Lap 31 Jarvis into the pits. Legge and Stoddart slightly collide.
Lap 41 Stoddart into the pits - retires.
Lap 45 Blue flag for Tom Kristensen.
Lap 46 Kristensen makes way for di Resta, who goes through
to lap the Dane.
Lap 51 Final lap. Di Resta claims his maiden DTM victory from
Scheider, Ekström, Tomczyk, Green, Spengler, Schneider
and Prémat, who is the best-placed driver with a year-old
car. Jarvis and Rockenfeller complete the top 10.
Mercedes-Benz draws level: victory for Paul di Resta in
the Lausitz
Klettwitz. Two wins for Audi, two for Mercedes-Benz. That
is the situation after four DTM races this season. Scotsman
Paul di Resta brought the equalizer on Sunday by claiming
his maiden DTM victory after only 14 races with a lights-to-flag
win at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz. “It can’t be
any better than today”, di Resta said. After 51 laps,
the 22-year old crossed the finish line in his AMG Mercedes
C-Class with the considerable margin of 5.562 seconds over
his main rival. Second place in the Lower Lausitz was taken
by Timo Scheider with his Audi A4 DTM, who remains the points’
leader. The podium was completed by Scheider’s fellow
Audi driver, Mattias Ekström (S) in third. In the battle
for the DTM title, di Resta with 23 points and Jamie Green
Mercedes-Benz/GB) with 21 points are in the best positions
in the hunt for Scheider (26).
It can hardly be more balanced: four DTM races, four different
winners. After Jamie Green’s success in Mugello in Italy
a fortnight ago, di Resta confirmed the increasing tendency
at Mercedes-Benz at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz in front of 80,000
fans. Having started from pole position, the Scot didn’t
lose his lead and drove a never-challenged victory home. With
a fastest race lap of 1.18.938 minutes, the 2006 Formula 3
Euro Series’ champion also set a new DTM lap record
in the Lausitz.
Scheider and Ekström were followed by another Audi driver.
Bavarian Martin Tomczyk came home fourth ahead of Green. Very
quick pit stops by the Audi crews of Scheider, Ekström
and Tomczyk and problems during Bruno Spengler’s stop
were the reason that the Canadian lost second place with his
AMG Mercedes C-Class, but still scored three points for the
drivers’ standings, in which the 24-year old is also
sixth. After Alexandre Prémat (Audi) was excluded from
the results because of using a tyre that wasn’t allocated
for use in qualifying or race, Oliver Jarvis (Audi) became
the best-placed driver with a year-old car, scoring one point
for the drivers’ standings for finishing eighth behind
DTM record champion, Bernd Schneider (Mercedes-Benz).
In his fourth DTM race, Ralf Schumacher (Mercedes-Benz) finished
14th and came home one place ahead of the runner-up of the
2003 DTM, Christijan Albers. Le Mans record winner, Tom Kristensen
(Audi), spun on the first lap of the race after a collision
and had to come into the pits. The Dane finished 17th. Markus
Winkelhock (Audi) caused a moment of shock on lap three. After
a tyre failure, he hit the pit wall on the main straight,
after which the safety car was out for two laps. Winkelhock
remained unscathed.
After a break because of the football Eurocup, the battle
for victory continues for the 19 drivers on the day of the
Eurocup finale (June 29th) at the legendary Norisring street
course in Nuremberg.
Paul di Resta (winner, AMG Mercedes): “I
have had already a couple of podium finishes in the DTM, that
were great, but it can’t be any better than today. Hopefully,
there are many more of such days to follow.”
Timo Scheider (2nd place, Audi Sport Team Abt): “We
can be very happy with this result. It is better than expected.
Throughout the race, I have given everything, but today, Paul
was simply better. Important is I have been able to extend
my points’ lead with this second place.”
Mattias Ekström (3rd place, Audi Sport Team
Abt Sortsline): “In fact, I had quite a good
race. The start wasn’t really perfect, but apart from
that, it went quite well. Compared to the race at Mugello,
we have changed some things on the car which better suit my
driving style. Now, first of all, I am looking forward to
the summer break and to watching football.”
Mercedes-Benz motorsport director Norbert Haug:
“That was a great race from Paul di Resta. Today, he
was in a class of his own and has deserved this win. Paul
di Resta’s first race in the DTM isn’t that long
ago and I really hope that he can continue this streak. The
group of Audis behind us was very strong. But I don’t
think that they would have been able to beat Paul. All in
all, we are very happy with the result.“
Audi motorsport director Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich:
“First of all, congratulations to Mercedes-Benz and
Paul di Resta. He has driven a great race and we didn’t
have a possibility to overtake him. We have shown a great
team performance and thus achieved an excellent result. Bearing
in mind that the previous races at the EuroSpeedway didn’t
go particularly well for us, we have had a good speed. I am
not unhappy with the result. For the next round at the Norisring,
we have less weight and we are looking forward to the second
half of the season.”
Disqualificiation a posteriori for Alexandre Prémat
Klettwitz. Audi driver, Alexandre Prémat was excluded
a posteriori from the fourth round of the DTM at the EuroSpeedway
Lausitz by the stewards of the meeting. During the Frenchman’s
second pit stop, a tyre was mounted on his car that wasn’t
allocated for qualifying or the race. This meant an infringement
of article 29.3 of the sporting regulations by the 22-year
old. The team accepted the penalty and didn’t appeal.
Prémat had scored one point for the drivers’
standings by finishing eighth. Because of his exclusion, his
British team mate moved up into eighth place. Please find
attached the revised result.
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