Race day at round four of the DTM – a healthy crowd at the Lausitzring with Ralf Schumacher now only a spectator.
Dirk Werner was soon in trouble – the BMW Team Schnitzer man spinning at the first corner, though he did recover to eventually finish in 13th place.
Gary Paffett made a fine start and immediately took the lead of the 22-strong field.
The British driver was soon putting distance between himself and the rest of the field.
Behind, the competition was fierce.
On lap 10, Martin Tomcczyk and Andy Priaulx came into contact, with Tomczyk coming off the worst.
Rather like Formula 1, pitstops, their timing and their number, proved crucial.
This was a key one – with Paffett retaining his lead ahead of Mike Rockenfeller.
Paffett in his DTM Mercedes AMG C-Coupe took the chequered flag after 52 laps in a time of one hour and nine minutes, 58.562 seconds – Rockenfeller was exactly 6.8 seconds back in second.
But Bruno Spengler and Mattias Ekstrom were involved in the most heated exchange – the former eventually securing seventh place, just.
In the points’ standings, Rockenfeller and Spengler each have 59 points.Paffett is following in third place with 47 points, and was delighted with the result:
Gary Paffett:“We stayed in front , which is important and then the last turn especially, I managed to pull the gap again. So yeah, it means so much for the whole team. We have had a very tough season, up to now. But we managed to score some points in other races. But with the win today we close up in the championship. But yeah, it is looking pretty good.”
The fifth round takes place at the Norisring on July the 14th.
