DTM 2007 ? Press Release No. 38

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Schneider celebrates first victory of the season
Brands Hatch. With his first victory of the season, Bernd Schneider has shown that he is also a force to be reckoned with in 2007. An exciting race covering 83 laps at the 1.929 kilometres long circuit south-east of London saw the driver from the Saarland taking the win with his AMG Mercedes C-Class against the two Audi drivers Martin Tomczyk and Mattias Ekstr?m. After two times? Formula 1 world champion, Mika H?kkinen, who started from pole, had been leading the race for a while, the Finn eventually came home in fourth place.

The race in detail
Spectators over the weekend: 18,000
Air temperature: 21.4 ?C
Track temperature: 26.6 ?C

Start   Spengler takes the lead from H?kkinen as Rockenfeller is stuck at the start. Di Resta and Rockenfeller off at Druids independent from each other. Winkelhock and Carroll also off, but they can continue.
Lap 2   Safety car is out
Lap 4   Spengler is leading from H?kkinen, Ekstr?m, Pr?mat, Schneider, Abt, Tomczyk and Green
Lap 5   Ickx into the pits
Lap 6   La Rosa in the pits, Stoddart is waiting at the pit lane entry
Lap 7   Restart after this lap. Scheider into the pits
Lap 8   Restart. Paffett and Lauda tangle at Hill, Lauda through the grass. Green into the pits
Lap 9   Schneider into the pits
Lap 10   Paffett into the pits
Lap 11   La Rosa's stop is not valid, as he came in during the safety car period
Lap 12   Abt into the pits
Lap 15   Spengler remains in the lead from H?kkinen, Ekstr?m, Pr?mat, Tomczyk, Luhr, Margaritis, Winkelhock, Carroll and la Rosa. Drive through for Ickx because of exceeding pit lane speed limit
Lap 17   Lauda, Ickx into the pits
Lap 18   Luhr into the pits
Lap 20   Pr?mat into the pits
Lap 21   Scheider into the pits for his second mandatory pit stop
Lap 22   H?kkinen, Margaritis into the pits
Lap 25   Spengler is leading from Ekstr?m, Tomczyk, Winkelhock, Carroll, La Rosa, Schneider, H?kkinen, Abt and Pr?mat
Lap 29   Green into the pits
Lap 31   H?kkinen, Luhr into the pits
Lap 32   Pr?mat, Paffett into the pits. Schneider and Carroll side by side in the battle for fourth, Schneider goes through
Lap 34   Winkelhock, Carroll into the pits, battle between H?kkinen and Ekstr?m
Lap 35   Ekstr?m, Schneider, Abt into the pits
Lap 36   Spengler into the pits
Lap 37   Tomczyk, Ickx into the pits
Lap 39   Margaritis into the pits. Vanina Icks tangles with Paffett at Hill and spins into the grass, continues
Lap 42   Lauda into the pits
Lap 43   Halfway through the race, Spengler is leading from Ekstr?m, Tomczyk, la Rosa, H?kkinen, Schneider, Stoddart, Carroll, Green and Pr?mat
Lap 44   Warning for Ickx. Stoddart into the pits
Lap 47   Ekstr?m into the pits
Lap 48   Spengler into the pits, stalls, continues. Schneider and H?kkinen are nose-to-tail. Spengler re-joins behind Ekstr?m in fourth.
Lap 49   Winkelhock into the pits
Lap 54   Schneider overtakes H?kkinen for second, la Rosa comes in for his first pit stop. Ekstr?m attacks H?kkinen for third place. Carroll into the pits
Lap 57   Under braking before Clearways, Ekstr?m overtakes Hakkinen on the inside for third place
Lap 60   Stoddart into the pits
Lap 61   Race leader Tomczyk is 22.9 seconds clear of Bernd Schneider in second place. Carroll into the pits
Lap 62   Tomczyk into the pits
Lap 63   Tomczyk rejoins in second place behind Schneider and just ahead of Ekstr?m
Lap 65   Tomczyk attacks Schneider, he is only 0.1 seconds behind
Lap 68   Schneider is leading from Tomczyk, Ekstr?m, H?kkinen, Spengler, Green, Pr?mat, Abt, Margaritis, Paffett
Lap 79   It seems like the positions have been taken: Schneider is 0.5 seconds clear of Tomczyk, Ekstr?m is another 0.9 seconds down in third
Lap 80   Ickx off the track at Hill
Lap 83   Final lap. Schneider scores his first win of the season from Tomczyk, Ekstr?m, H?kkinen, Spengler, Green, Pr?mat and Abt.

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DTM 2007 ? Press Release No. 39
Schneider, Tomczyk celebrate double German victory in England
Brands Hatch. A perfect pit stop strategy, great overtaking manoeuvres and a vast experience ? these factors were the basis for the first DTM season victory for Bernd Schneider (Mercedes-Benz) at Brands Hatch. The five times? DTM champion won an exciting race over 83 laps at the 1,929 kilometres long circuit, the shortest track on the DTM calendar. ?We had a perfect strategy and a great car. Boys, you are just awesome. Now, it is party time?, the happy race winner told his crew over the radio. One of the first people to congratulate him was the new rising star in Formula 1: ?Lewis Hamilton called me directly after the race and congratulated me?, Schneider told. For the man from St. Ingbert, it was already the 42nd victory in the DTM. Another German driver was delighted to finish second. Only 0.543 seconds down, Martin Tomczyk crossed the finish line with his Audi A4 DTM and took over the lead in the championship standings. Third place at the historic race track in Kent county went to the 2004 DTM champion and last year?s winner at Brands Hatch, Swede Mattias Ekstr?m (Audi).

The fourth season round of the DTM provided plenty of action. There were many position changes at the front. Pole-sitter Mika H?kkinen (Mercedes-Benz) lost the duel at the startline to his Canadian team-mate, Bruno Spengler. On lap 54 and 57, the Finn had to let the eventual winner Schneider and Mattias Ekstr?m past. H?kkinen finished fourth in the race in the south-east of England. Spengler had problems during his second pit stop, lost valuable positions and finished fifth ahead of fellow Mercedes-Benz driver, Green. Alexandre Pr?mat (Audi A4 DTM) also failed to make the best out of his good third grid position and crossed the finish line in seventh place.

The race had an untimely end for erstwhile points leader, Paul di Resta. Soon after the start, several cars collided. Di Resta and Mike Rockenfeller had to park their two cars.

After this race, there is a new leader in the points? standings. With 20 points, Tomczyk is now in the lead ahead of Ekstr?m (18) and Schneider (17.5). With 16 points, di Resta still is closely following the leading trio. In a fortnight, the 20 DTM drivers are heading towards Nuremberg. The Norisring, the only street circuit on the DTM calendar, is hosting the DTM at the weekend from June 22nd till 24th.

Bernd Schneider (winner, Original-Teile AMG Mercedes): ?I am totally happy with my first win of the season and with our perfect strategy. After Ekstr?m had completed his second pit stop, I knew that the remaining 30 laps would be tough and that I couldn?t make a mistake. That has worked out very well, because today, my car was perfect.?

Martin Tomczyk (2nd place, Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline): ?Now that was a tough race! Second place and the lead in the championship standings are the result of hard work by my team. They gave me a great car and worked out a perfect strategy. Towards the end, I was having a great fight with Bernd. I was a little bit quicker, but as overtaking is so difficult here at Brands Hatch, I didn?t want to take any risks, because both of us could have ended up in the gravel trap. Now, I am the points leader going to my home race at Norisring. It couldn?t have been any better.?

Mattias Ekstr?m (3rd place, Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline): ?A great race, a great car, nice and fair position fights. Today, it was really fun. The key to the podium was my second pit stop. I didn?t really expect this result. Now, I am looking forward to Norisring.?

Mercedes-Benz motorsport director Norbert Haug: ?I was watching the race live together with Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton and they were impressed. They are big DTM fans. The race was impressive and the team had a great strategy. Surely, we could have been better with Mika H?kkinen and Bruno Spengler. But Bernd Schneider deserves a compliment. Today, he was really strong and he showed an impressive performance, making no mistake whatsoever.?

Audi motorsport director Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich: ?I am very happy with the performance shown by Martin Tomczyk and Mattias Ekstr?m. They both drove a very good race. Eventually, having two different strategies also turned out to be decisive. Basically, I hadn?t expected to be so strong here with the 2007-spec cars. It was a fair and exciting DTM race here at Brands Hatch, just like the fans want to see it. I am also happy with the performance of the 2006-spec cars. The team Phoenix was strong, both of their cars were the best-placed 2006-spec cars in the race.?