Photo: DTM media

Schneider does the bussiness at Brands

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A perfect pit stop strategy, great overtaking manoeuvres and a vast experience – these factors were the basis for the first DTM season victory for Bernd Schneider (Mercedes-Benz) at Brands Hatch. The five times’ DTM champion won an exciting race over 83 laps at the 1,929 kilometres long circuit, the shortest track on the DTM calendar.

“We had a perfect strategy and a great car. Boys, you are just awesome. Now, it is party time”, the happy race winner told his crew over the radio. One of the first people to congratulate him was the new rising star in Formula 1: “Lewis Hamilton called me directly after the race and congratulated me”, Schneider told. For the man from St. Ingbert, it was already the 42nd victory in the DTM. Another German driver was delighted to finish second. Only 0.543 seconds down, Martin Tomczyk crossed the finish line with his Audi A4 DTM and took over the lead in the championship standings. Third place at the historic race track in Kent county went to the 2004 DTM champion and last year’s winner at Brands Hatch, Swede Mattias Ekström (Audi).

The fourth season round of the DTM provided plenty of action. There were many position changes at the front. Pole-sitter Mika Häkkinen (Mercedes-Benz) lost the duel at the startline to his Canadian team-mate, Bruno Spengler. On lap 54 and 57, the Finn had to let the eventual winner Schneider and Mattias Ekström past. Häkkinen finished fourth in the race in the south-east of England. Spengler had problems during his second pit stop, lost valuable positions and finished fifth ahead of fellow Mercedes-Benz driver, Green. Alexandre Prémat (Audi A4 DTM) also failed to make the best out of his good third grid position and crossed the finish line in seventh place.

The race had an untimely end for erstwhile points leader, Paul di Resta. Soon after the start, several cars collided. Di Resta and Mike Rockenfeller had to park their two cars.

After this race, there is a new leader in the points’ standings. With 20 points, Tomczyk is now in the lead ahead of Ekström (18) and Schneider (17.5). With 16 points, di Resta still is closely following the leading trio. In a fortnight, the 20 DTM drivers are heading towards Nuremberg. The Norisring, the only street circuit on the DTM calendar, is hosting the DTM at the weekend from June 22nd till 24th.

Bernd Schneider (winner, Original-Teile AMG Mercedes):
“I am totally happy with my first win of the season and with our perfect strategy. After Ekström had completed his second pit stop, I knew that the remaining 30 laps would be tough and that I couldn’t make a mistake. That has worked out very well, because today, my car was perfect.”

Martin Tomczyk (2nd place, Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline):
“Now that was a tough race! Second place and the lead in the championship standings are the result of hard work by my team. They gave me a great car and worked out a perfect strategy. Towards the end, I was having a great fight with Bernd. I was a little bit quicker, but as overtaking is so difficult here at Brands Hatch, I didn’t want to take any risks, because both of us could have ended up in the gravel trap. Now, I am the points leader going to my home race at Norisring. It couldn’t have been any better.”

Mattias Ekström (3rd place, Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline):
“A great race, a great car, nice and fair position fights. Today, it was really fun. The key to the podium was my second pit stop. I didn’t really expect this result. Now, I am looking forward to Norisring.“

Mercedes-Benz motorsport director Norbert Haug:
“I was watching the race live together with Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton and they were impressed. They are big DTM fans. The race was impressive and the team had a great strategy. Surely, we could have been better with Mika Häkkinen and Bruno Spengler. But Bernd Schneider deserves a compliment. Today, he was really strong and he showed an impressive performance, making no mistake whatsoever.”

Audi motorsport director Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich:
“I am very happy with the performance shown by Martin Tomczyk and Mattias Ekström. They both drove a very good race. Eventually, having two different strategies also turned out to be decisive. Basically, I hadn’t expected to be so strong here with the 2007-spec cars. It was a fair and exciting DTM race here at Brands Hatch, just like the fans want to see it. I am also happy with the performance of the 2006-spec cars. The team Phoenix was strong, both of their cars were the best-placed 2006-spec cars in the race.”