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Gary Paffett the new DTM Champion

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Mercedes-Benz driver Gary Paffett is the newly crowned 2005 DTM Champion. For the 24-year old Briton, his third place in the season finale, held at the Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg, five wins and another three podium finishes represented the basis for the biggest success in his career so far.

“It was an incredible feeling when I crossed the line,” beamed the new champion. For Mercedes-Benz, the final round of the season turned out to be a true triumph. Bernd Schneider clinched the win, in his 200th DTM race, thus securing his 39th victory in Europe’s most popular touring car series, with his team-mate, Jamie Green (Salzgitter AMG-Mercedes), finishing runner-up in the eleventh and final round of the season.

147,000 DTM enthusiasts travelled to the Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg to witness the 2005 season’s final DTM weekend, featuring the great showdown between Paffett and Ekström. From his sixth position on the grid, Briton Paffett kept his cool, delivered in fine style and finished third. In the qualifying session on Saturday, Audi A4 DTM driver Ekström failed for the first time in the 2005 season to qualify for the Super Pole and had to settle for 15th position on the grid. In the 37-lap race, representing a race distance of 169.238 kilometres, the Swede temporarily worked his way up to sixth place. The coup to make a double pit stop – with two tyre changes without having completed a lap in-between – worked, but at the end of the day, the time gained by this move wasn’t enough for the Swede to defend his title. Ekström finished seventh and had to make do with the runner-up position in the championship, 13 points behind Paffett.

Yet, the crowds on the grandstands weren’t thrilled by the battle for the championship alone. On the drying track, the DTM drivers once again provided the DTM enthusiasts motor racing at its best. Tom Kristensen, who finished third in the championship, took his Audi A4 DTM to fourth place, followed by his team-mate, Frank Stippler. In his Opel Vectra GTS V8, Swiss Marcel Fässler secured sixth position – the best result of the Opel drivers, with Laurent Aiello and Manuel Reuter coming ninth and twelfth respectively.

For the Frenchman, who had already officially announced his retirement, it was the final race of his career. Heinz-Harald Frentzen crashed into the tyre walls, on lap 30, and was taken to the hospital to be monitored for safety reasons. In the final round of his maiden DTM season, Mika Häkkinen took his AMG-Mercedes C-Class to 15th position. In his debut season, the idol of the public finished fifth, behind Bernd Schneider.

Die 2005 DTM season turned out to be a season of records – and a true crowd puller. Altogether, the eleven rounds attracted a total crowd of 922,500 spectators, representing an average attendance of 83,864 spectators per race. During eight of the eleven DTM weekends, a new attendance record was established. DTM was covered live or re-live in 36 countries all around the world. In Germany, the DTM live coverage attracted an average TV audience of about two million viewers per race, while the DTM’s official website (www.dtm.de) was visited by more than three million users per month.