September 20th, 2009
Timo Scheider on course for DTM title
DTM
Montmel?. A perfect strategy, two ideal pit stops and a flawless race. At the Circuit de Catalunya, this was the base for Audi driver Timo Scheider for a big step towards his title defence. After 59 laps and a total of 175.643 kilometres, the reigning DTM champion from Germany scored a dominant victory in the eight DTM round of the season. His two fellow Audi drivers Tom Kristensen from Denmark and German Martin Tomczyk completed Audi?s winning trio on the podium. ?I had a rocket start. I think that it would be nice when you could plan something like this. But today, it was largely luck and good work by my team. A margin of twelve points in the championship sounds very good. Now, we can take on the two remaining races in a relaxed way?, said the joyful winner about his fifth career victory in the DTM and his second win of the season.
With ten points for first place and a total of 53 points, the 30-year old remains in the lead of the points? standings. His main rivals are Swede Mattias Ekstr?m (Audi) at 41 points, who ended up fifth in the Spanish DTM round behind Bruno Spengler (Mercedes-Benz), and Mercedes-Benz driver Gary Paffett at 39 points. The Briton was the best-placed driver with an AMG Mercedes C-Class by finishing fourth. ?Of course, I am disappointed. We want to be in contention for the top positions and we wanted to beat Audi. Unfortunately, that didn?t work out, we just didn?t have the necessary speed. In qualifying, we had the same speed as Audi. But today, it wasn?t enough - for whatever reason. Probably, fourth place was all we could achieve?, said Paffett about his result.
The eighth round of the most popular international touring car series started with a tactical masterpiece by Audi. Both Kristensen, who started from pole position, and Tomczyk, who was standing right behind the Dane in third place, moved over to the right side of the track at the start and thus made way for Scheider, who, in fifth place, was also starting from the left grid row. The eventual winner took the lead coming out of the second corner and wasn?t to lose it anymore until the end of the race. Behind him, there were numerous fascinating duels to be enjoyed by the fans. It was particularly exciting after Ekstr?m?s late second pit stop on lap 43. The two times? DTM champion from the years 2004 and 2007 rejoined the field right behind Paffett and attacked the Brit several times. This resulted into some bodywork contact, for which Ekstr?m was warned with the black-and-white flag. With one lap to go, Ekstr?m tried overtake Paffett on the outside. The attempt didn?t succeed and Spengler was able to overtake the Swede.
The best-placed driver of a 2008-spec car was Frenchman Alexandre Pr?mat with his Audi A4 DTM in eighth place. Ralf Schumacher showed a great recovery. After the 34-year old had to start from 20th place following an engine chance after warm-up, the Mercedes-Benz driver made it all the way up to finish 13th.
The ninth and penultimate DTM weekend of the season will be taking place at Dijon-Prenois in France from October 9th till 11th.
Audi motorsport director Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich: ?I am very happy with the result. This was a great team performance. We haven?t secured the championship title yet, but this was an important step into the right direction. A convincing performance and real hard work by our teams were decisive. It was a perfect weekend in Barcelona. Especially for Timo, who made a perfect start. Probably, you make such a start only once in your life. Tom and Martin were driving at a very good speed. I hope that the spectators have enjoyed the battle for the point-scoring positions.?
Mercedes-Benz motorsport director Norbert Haug: ?I would rather have seen the battle for fourth, fifth and sixth place at the front of the field. That really was an entertaining fight. In spite of our ten kilograms of additional weight, we were strong in qualifying. But in terms of consistency, we just weren?t good enough in the race. Now, it is very much likely that the championship has already been decided. But from second place down, everything is still open and we will give everything in the remaining races.?
