Paul di Resta took his second race win in a row in the Oschersleben round of the DTM championship, after recovering from a disastrous pit stop.
The Scot led the race from the start, but a slow pit stop saw him lose three seconds and hand the race lead to his HWA Mercedes team-mate Bruno Spengler.
Di Resta’s cause was helped by Spengler making his second pit stop early to counter the improving pace of Audi’s Timo Scheider, but the plan failed when Scheider was able to leapfrog Spengler.
Di Resta – still to stop for the second time – was out in front, with Scheider in second place.
Showing great aggression to recover the time lost in the pits, the Scot put in a series of fast laps on worn tyres, which would have allowed him the chance of retaining his lead from Scheider.
But this became rather academic when Scheider tragically suffered a left-rear puncture – seemingly caused when he ran wide exiting the fast esses – that killed his race and his championship aspirations.
Scheider’s unscheduled pit stop promoted Spengler to second place, while Mattias Ekström was promoted to third place, but coming under close attention from Gary Paffett.
Paffett had himself had a troubled race, after the Race Stewards inexplicably decided that he should relinquish the place he’d taken from Martin Tomczyk on the opening lap, a move that involved a little bit of panel-rubbing. However, the McLaren test driver got his revenge by jumping Tomczyk and Mike Rockenfeller during the pit stops.
DTM Oschersleben Final Classification (50 laps):
[Original images via AUTOSPORT]
Richard Bailey
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