5th September, 2010
A dominant victory by Paul Di Resta at Brands Hatch
DTM
Fawkham. No mistakes, a perfect score. At the British circuit of Brands Hatch, 24,000 fans watched a perfect DTM race weekend by Scottish driver Paul Di Resta. On Saturday, the Mercedes-Benz driver claimed a dominant pole position and on Sunday, the 24-year old scored a clear lights-to-flag victory at the shortest circuit on this year’s DTM calendar. As he crossed the finish line, Di Resta’s margin over second-placed Bruno Spengler (CDN/Mercedes-Benz) was a comfortable 7.4 seconds. “Today, it wasn’t difficult, because the car was just fantastic, even better than in qualifying on Saturday. I was able to control the race throughout and to score points for the championship. Winning here today is just great. I am feeling very well in my car and I hope that I can keep on racing at the front of the field”, said the winner of the seventh DTM round. For Di Resta, it was the fourth DTM race win of his career. In the overall standings, he moved up into second place, nine points behind points’ leader Spengler.
Reigning DTM champion Timo Scheider finished third as the best-placed Audi driver of the day. “Initially, there was just no way to catch Paul, he was in a league of his own. Paul drove a lonesome race. I hardly noticed that he was still out there. For me, it is positive to see that my performance is improving. We are all here to win races and we aren’t giving up”, said the defending champion after the race. Just behind Scheider, Spaniard Miguel Molina surprised his opponents with his Audi A4 DTM. Having started eighth into the 98 lap race, the 21-year old finished fourth after a very strong race. The DTM rookie and the best-placed driver of a 2008-spec car was rewarded with five championship points.
Zandvoort winner Gary Paffett (Mercedes-Benz) was fourth in his home race for a long time. However, after a quick pit stop on lap 73, Molina rejoined the race ahead of the Brit and Paffett lost one place as a result. The 29-year old, who came to Great Britain as runner-up in the points’ standings, is now third in the battle for the title behind Spengler and Di Resta.
Mercedes-Benz driver David Coulthard started from 14th place, but he made a jump start and dropped back to the end of the field after a drive-through penalty. The Scot drove an inspired race, finishing twelfth after 189.0442 kilometres. His fellow-Mercedes-Benz driver Ralf Schumacher suffered from a setback after a good qualifying performance. On lap 30, the German came off the track and had to park his car in the pits one lap later. Swedish Audi driver, two times’ DTM champion Mattias Ekström was also unlucky. Due to multiple contacts on the opening lap and an unavoidable collision with Susie Stoddart (GB/Mercedes-Benz), his car was damaged so heavily that Ekström had to retire.
The eighth DTM race weekend of the year will be taking place at the Motorsport Arena Oschersleben from September 17th till 19th.
Mercedes-Benz head of motorsport Norbert Haug: “Of course, that was a good step towards the championship and a great drive by Paul today. Nobody, neither in a Mercedes-Benz nor in an Audi, had a chance. This track seems to be tailor-made for him. He has deserved this victory, it was really impressive. The battle for the championship remains wide open.”
Audi head of motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich: “Today, the opening lap wasn’t really great. What happened to Eki was, of course, quite bad for us. Timo has shown a very good performance. Unfortunately, dreaming brings nothing in life, but I am still convinced that the battle for the title hasn’t been decided yet. We will try to make sure that Timo can keep the performance he has shown in the last couple of races until the rest of the season. Another thing that I really, really enjoyed was the good performance by Miguel Molina.”
