Mercedes-Benz draws level: victory for Paul di Resta in the Lausitz
Klettwitz. Two wins for Audi, two for Mercedes-Benz. That is the situation after four DTM races this season. Scotsman Paul di Resta brought the equalizer on Sunday by claiming his maiden DTM victory after only 14 races with a lights-to-flag win at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz. ?It can?t be any better than today?, di Resta said. After 51 laps, the 22-year old crossed the finish line in his AMG Mercedes C-Class with the considerable margin of 5.562 seconds over his main rival. Second place in the Lower Lausitz was taken by Timo Scheider with his Audi A4 DTM, who remains the points? leader. The podium was completed by Scheider?s fellow Audi driver, Mattias Ekstr?m (S) in third. In the battle for the DTM title, di Resta with 23 points and Jamie Green Mercedes-Benz/GB) with 21 points are in the best positions in the hunt for Scheider (26).
It can hardly be more balanced: four DTM races, four different winners. After Jamie Green?s success in Mugello in Italy a fortnight ago, di Resta confirmed the increasing tendency at Mercedes-Benz at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz in front of 80,000 fans. Having started from pole position, the Scot didn?t lose his lead and drove a never-challenged victory home. With a fastest race lap of 1.18.938 minutes, the 2006 Formula 3 Euro Series? champion also set a new DTM lap record in the Lausitz.
Scheider and Ekstr?m were followed by another Audi driver. Bavarian Martin Tomczyk came home fourth ahead of Green. Very quick pit stops by the Audi crews of Scheider, Ekstr?m and Tomczyk and problems during Bruno Spengler?s stop were the reason that the Canadian lost second place with his AMG Mercedes C-Class, but still scored three points for the drivers? standings, in which the 24-year old is also sixth. After Alexandre Pr?mat (Audi) was excluded from the results because of using a tyre that wasn?t allocated for use in qualifying or race, Oliver Jarvis (Audi) became the best-placed driver with a year-old car, scoring one point for the drivers? standings for finishing eighth behind DTM record champion, Bernd Schneider (Mercedes-Benz).
In his fourth DTM race, Ralf Schumacher (Mercedes-Benz) finished 14th and came home one place ahead of the runner-up of the 2003 DTM, Christijan Albers. Le Mans record winner, Tom Kristensen (Audi), spun on the first lap of the race after a collision and had to come into the pits. The Dane finished 17th. Markus Winkelhock (Audi) caused a moment of shock on lap three. After a tyre failure, he hit the pit wall on the main straight, after which the safety car was out for two laps. Winkelhock remained unscathed.
After a break because of the football Eurocup, the battle for victory continues for the 19 drivers on the day of the Eurocup finale (June 29th) at the legendary Norisring street course in Nuremberg.
Paul di Resta (winner, AMG Mercedes): ?I have had already a couple of podium finishes in the DTM, that were great, but it can?t be any better than today. Hopefully, there are many more of such days to follow.?
Timo Scheider (2nd place, Audi Sport Team Abt): ?We can be very happy with this result. It is better than expected. Throughout the race, I have given everything, but today, Paul was simply better. Important is I have been able to extend my points? lead with this second place.?
Mattias Ekstr?m (3rd place, Audi Sport Team Abt Sortsline): ?In fact, I had quite a good race. The start wasn?t really perfect, but apart from that, it went quite well. Compared to the race at Mugello, we have changed some things on the car which better suit my driving style. Now, first of all, I am looking forward to the summer break and to watching football.?
Mercedes-Benz motorsport director Norbert Haug: ?That was a great race from Paul di Resta. Today, he was in a class of his own and has deserved this win. Paul di Resta?s first race in the DTM isn?t that long ago and I really hope that he can continue this streak. The group of Audis behind us was very strong. But I don?t think that they would have been able to beat Paul. All in all, we are very happy with the result.?
Audi motorsport director Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich: ?First of all, congratulations to Mercedes-Benz and Paul di Resta. He has driven a great race and we didn?t have a possibility to overtake him. We have shown a great team performance and thus achieved an excellent result. Bearing in mind that the previous races at the EuroSpeedway didn?t go particularly well for us, we have had a good speed. I am not unhappy with the result. For the next round at the Norisring, we have less weight and we are looking forward to the second half of the season.?
