The Finn is flying again: victory for H?kkinen at Lausitz
Klettwitz. Finnish Mercedes-Benz driver Mika H?kkinen claimed victory in a very turbulent DTM race at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz, where he won with a great tactical performance. For the former Formula 1 world champion, this success was his second victory in the most popular international touring car series. ?I am feeling great. The performance of my new C-Class was fantastic?, the 38-year old said after winning the race. The ?Flying Finn? celebrated his second DTM success two years after his maiden win at Spa-Francorchamps almost to the day. Second place went to Paul di Resta from Scotland with the 2005-spec AMG Mercedes C-Class. With a total of 20 points, the 21-year old newcomer is now leading the points? standings. The three-way success for Mercedes-Benz on Sunday was completed by Canadian Bruno Spengler, who had started from pole position. A total of 77,500 motorsport fans attended the DTM racing weekend at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz.
Two safety car interventions made the third DTM round of the year to a race that was dominated by tactics. The ideal pit stop strategy of H?kkinen?s team eventually contributed to the 137th victory for Mercedes-Benz in the DTM. Paul di Resta had an equally good strategy that allowed him to score points for the third time in a row. Bruno Spengler was beaten at the start and dropped two places.
Fifth place in the Lausitz behind DTM record champion and last year?s winner Bernd Schneider went to Timo Scheider. The best-placed Audi driver of the day benefited from the safety car interventions and climbed up from tenth on the grid to finish fifth. He was followed by a Mercedes-Benz-trio with Jamie Green (GB), Matthias Lauda (A) and Gary Paffett (GB). The top ten was completed by the two Audi A4 DTMs of Martin Tomczyk and Mattias Ekstr?m. The Swede came in for his first mandatory pit stop while running fourth. Exacrly at that time, the pit lane exit was closed because the safety car was deployed, so that the 28-year old had to wait at the end of the pit lane until the entire field had gone past.
New points? leader, Paul di Resta (20 points) is followed by Ekstr?m, Paffet and Tomczyk , all tied at twelve points. The fourth DTM round of the season is taking place at Brands Hatch (GB) on June 10th.
Mika H?kkinen (winner, AMG Mercedes): ?I am feeling great. It was a very interesting weekend. The performance of my new C-Class was fantastic. Being in the middle of the podium surrounded by my team mates is wonderful.?
Paul di Resta (2nd place, JAWA4U.de AMG Mercedes): ?I had an extraordinary race. Especially in qualifying, my car was excellent. In the race, I had a few minor problems, but the result is absolutely okay. Now I am leading the points? standings coming to Brands Hatch. I would never ever have dreamt about that. I hope that there will be many British fans out there to support me in my home race.?
Bruno Spengler (3rd place, DaimlerChrysler Bank AMG Mercedes): ?That is a good result after a difficult race. During the turbulent phases of the race, my team has been doing a tremendous job and always kept a clear view of what was going on. Now I am back in the race for the title.?
Timo Scheider (5th place, Audi Sport Team Abt): ?My race was okay. There was a lot of radio contact and at certain times, I didn?t know what was going on myself. But obviously we have made the right decisions. Our lack of speed in yesterday?s qualifying didn?t come as a surprise to us and our strategy for the race was to keep the damage as limited as possible. In the end, we succeeded quite well in doing so by finishing fifth. We can be happy with that. Eventually, every point counts.?
Mercedes-Benz motorsport director Norbert Haug: ?Surely, it was an action-packed race. Nobody can complain about that. Victory for Mika H?kkinen is well desverved. It is nice that he has won again after two years almost to the day. He is in a very good shape. Bruno Spengler was in contention for victory as well. But mainly I would like to emphasise on the performance by the team. That the older cars are still working perfectly has been proven in an impressive way by Paul di Resta. He is a little bit like Lewis Hamilton in Formula 1 and now also leading the points? standings in the DTM. But you have to score as many points as possible after a grid line-up like we had today and here, we have succeeded in doing so after two races in which things didn?t go that well for us. Audi could have been better when they would have had the same weight. But the season is still long and I think that it will remain exciting for quite a long time, too.?
Audi motorsport director Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich: ?First of all, my sincere congratulations to Mika H?kkinen, Mercedes-Benz has just shown a great performance here. But I also like to make a compliment to our team, our cars got some more speed compared to qualifying. All in all, it was a turbulent race. In the next season round, our cars from this year will be lighter, so we are looking forward. The decision that Mattias Ekstr?m had to come in for another pit stop is right according to the regulations. Throughout the race, we were having technical problems during radio contact with Mattias. That is also why he came into the pits although the pit lane was closed.?
