Gary Paffett puts Mercedes back on top with Lausitzring win
Mercedes’ Gary Paffett has taken his first DTM win of 2013 at the Lausitzring, and the Stuttgart manufacturer’s first since the Norisring last season.
The 2005 DTM champion started the race from second on the grid, but after passing pole-sitter and HWA team-mate, Christian Vietoris, the Briton was relatively unchallenged in his run to victory.
Mike Rockenfeller was once again best of the Audis and finished second behind Paffett by 6.8 seconds, after having started sixth on the grid. The 2010 Le Mans winner first pitted on lap-four to maximise a standard-option-standard tyre strategy, and worked his way up to second come the end of the race.
Despite having closed the gap to a mere 0.668s to Paffett at one point after the Mercedes’ first stop, Rockenfeller was unable to mount a challenge, and had to eventually settle for second.
The Audi driver is now tied with Spengler on 59 points at the top of the drivers’ championship standings, but leads the French Canadian on countback.
Christian Vietoris finished third to take his second podium of the season after passing team-mate, Robert Wickens, in the race’s closing stages.
Jamie Green, who started as best of the Audis in third, finished fifth but will bring home a much needed 10 points after not managing to score in the opening three rounds. These are the first of his Audi career, since switching from Mercedes over the winter.
Mercedes rookie, Daniel Juncadella, also put in a great drive to finish sixth after starting 13th to score his first points of the season.
BMW had a relatively quiet afternoon, with Bruno Spengler the best placed of the Munich cars in seventh, despite having a drag-race with Audi’s Mattias Ekström along the home straight for the position.
The reigning DTM champion took the position by a mere 0.029s after the pair banged wheels, which resulted in the Canadian giving the Swede the finger as he did so.
Ekström used a standard-option-standard tyre strategy to move his way through the field from 18th after pitting on lap-four. On lap 38, he forced his way past Mercedes’ rookie, Pascal Wehrlein, then complained to the Abt team about the young German’s on-track behaviour over the radio.
Martin Tomczyk’s 2013 nightmare continued following contact with his RMG BMW team-mate, Andy Priaulx.
The 2011 title winner’s point-free streak from the Nurburgring last season continues as he finished 19th, with Priaulx finishing three places behind in 22nd.
