19th September, 2010
Excitement in the battle for the title - Di Resta wins from Spengler
DTM
Oschersleben. The DTM season is heading onto the finish straight and the fans of the most popular international touring car series are watching an exciting head-to-head fight between two Mercedes-Benz drivers in the battle for the title. Scotsman Paul Di Resta won the eighth DTM round at Oschersleben with a tiny margin over points’ leader Bruno Spengler from Canada. “The race wasn’t easy. Thanks to our speed, we could stay out on the track a little bit longer and thus wait for the perfect moment to make our second pit stop. Winning two races in a row is incredibly nice. Now, there are only three races remaining. I am looking forward to them and I am very confident”, said the Mercedes-Benz driver about his success. Di Resta led the race for a long time, but lost his lead to Spengler following a problem during his first pit stop. The 24-year old increased the pressure, made up for lost time and managed to claim back the lead on lap 34 after his second pit stop. With three races remaining, Di Resta is only seven points down on championship leader Spengler (60 points). Di Resta’s impressive performance from the last four races: two second places and two victories.
With his Audi A4 DTM, Swede Mattias Ekström crossed the finish line in third place after 184.8 kilometres. With 34 points, the best-placed Audi driver of the day still has mathematical chances to win the title. “We all started into this season with the confidence of being able to battle for the title. We were strong, but still, it seemed that we were unable to take part in this battle. Theoretically, the championship is still open, but I think that it is in the hands of a manufacturer. Now, we are taking the time to investigate why that was the case. Surely, I have made a few mistakes and at times, I was simply too slow myself. But one can’t always win. Winning all the time would be dull”, said Ekström, who already won the DTM title in 2004 and 2007.
The trio in front benefited from Timo Scheider’s bad luck. After fascinating battles and with a clever strategy, the reigning DTM champion with his Audi A4 DTM managed to move up from third on the grid to first in the race. A puncture with 15 laps remaining, however, put an end to Scheider’s hope of defending the title. The two times’ DTM champion lost several places and finished eleventh after another pit stop. Based on the points’ standings, Scheider can’t win the title any longer.
Behind third-placed Ekström, Gary Paffett (Mercedes-Benz) thrilled the spectators at the Motorsport Arena Oschersleben. Having started from tenth place, the Brit made his way up into fourth. The reward for the 29-year old: five points and third place in the drivers’ standings. The best-placed driver of a 2008-spec car was German Mike Rockenfeller. The Audi driver ended up fifth ahead of his fellow Audi driver Alexandre Prémat. Ex-Formula 1 driver Ralf Schumacher (Mercedes-Benz) only just missed out on scoring championship points by finishing ninth behind Jamie Green (GB/Mercedes-Benz) and Martin Tomczyk (D/Audi).
The ninth DTM race weekend, the final event of the season in Germany, will be taking place at the Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg from October 15th till 17th.
Mercedes-Benz head of motorsport Norbert Haug: “I am still not accepting any congratulations for the title. Mathematically, it is not over yet. But this certainly is another step into the right direction. We have a margin of 26 points, there are still 30 points at stake. Today, we have seen how close everything is. Today, we had the better speed and we were able to push accordingly. It remains exciting and we are looking forward to Hockenheim.”
Audi head of motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich: “In none of this year’s races, we came so close to winning. Unfortunately, Timo had a puncture and then lost so much pressure that the tyre exploded. That really was bad luck. But we are taking it positively: today, we had a performance that we weren’t able to show so far. The upward trend is definitely there. There is nobody within our team who is giving up. For all of us, it is a great motivation that we were able to slowly make our way up to the front and to improve our performance. Our goal for the next race is to finally win again. Eki is still in the race for the championship.”
