Paffett takes third win

The sixth race of the season on the Norisring had it al. It was incident packed, was exciting, had loads of battles, there were tears for some and there were smiles for others. Once again it was Gary Paffett who took victory, claiming the championship lead in the progress. And once again it was Opel who had no luck and were the biggest losers.

In front of a record crowd of 143,000 spectators it was Paffett who took the lead at the start. He was the only Mercedes driver who wasn’t involved in any incidents, and therefor he was the only Mercedes driver to finish in the top 8. Soon after the start it was rookie Jamie Green who pushed Häkkinen, racing in third place at the time, and himself out of the race and spun Mattias Ekström round. The safety-car had to come out and a couple of drivers, with Ekström and Fässler, came in for their pitstop.

Later on in the race Bruno Spengler managed to pull the same trick on Bernd Schneider, lying in 7th. Fortunately Schneider was able to continue his race, unlike Spengler. However, a few laps later Schneider spun Alexandros Margaritis round and he was penalised with a drive trough-penalty. Stefan Mücke ended his race after damaging his car in a duel with Pierre Kaffer. Mücke had been given a drive through-penalty earlier in the race for pushing another car. Alesi retired after touching the wall and having an engine failure.

Fässler and Ekström were looking to get in the lead, after they had made their first stop and lying just behind the leaders, who hadn’t taken their first stop yet. However, a crash from Dindo Capello made the safety car come out again. Fässler decided to take their second stop with half the race still to go, but Fässler lost control over his car on an oil trail left by Capello’s car, hit the wall and damaged his car beyond repair. The sympathetic Swiss had tears roling over his face when he explained what happened to his boss Volker Strycek.

Gary Paffett used the safety car period to make both his two obligatory pitstops, dropping him back to 13th, but not losing to much time. In the remainder of the race he managed to fight his way back to the front in superiour style. Another driver who had made a perfect pitstop strategy was Christian Abt. He managed to finish in second place in a year old car.

Even though Abt was summoned to let Ekström pass, he kept closing the door in front of the Swede. On the last lap things got worse for Ekström, when Manuel Reuter took an absurd manouvre on him. Ekström was spun round and damaged the front of his car, but managed to finish in fourth. Reuter was penalised with 30 seconds for his move. Mattias Ekström, however, was mad at Abt for not letting him pass. The Swede didn’t want to comment on his teammates behaviour. Abt explained after the race he wanted to let Ekström pass on the last lap. But when the last lap was there, Ekström wasn’t behind him anymore, because he was spun round.

Manuel Reuter lost a good result because of his move and dropped back to ninth place. Aiello had to retire to, after racing in the front regions as well. Heinz-Harald Frentzen was the only Opel car that made it to the finish in the points with sixth place, eventhough he was spun round at the start and had his bonnet replaced during his pitstop.