Green wins controversial race

After a hotly contested ninth season round in Barcelona, the decision in the battle for the title in the DTM has been postponed to the final race of the year at Hockenheim. After much-discussed and disputable position fights, Audi decide to withdraw all its cars from the race after 50 of 58 laps. After that, victory went to Jamie Green with the AMG Mercedes C-Class from his fellow Mercedes-Benz drivers Bruno Spengler and Paul di Resta. For Green, it was the first DTM victory of his career.

The reason for the decision by Audi’s motorsport director Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich were many duels that were too harsh from Audi’s point of view. Among others, Mika Häkkinen and the runner-up in the points’ standings, Audi driver Martin Tomczyk, collided on lap seven. On lap 13, Mercedes-Benz driver Daniel la Rosa collided with the championship leader, Mattias Ekström with his Audi A4 DTM. All four drivers had to retire from the race.

In front of 42,000 spectators during the race weekend, emotions were running high in the pit lane as well. The motorsport directors of both manufacturers, Norbert Haug (Mercedes-Benz) and Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich (Audi) shared the view that the emotions will cool down and expressed themselves in an optimistic way for the season final at the Hockenheimring in three weeks’ time to bring a sporty and fair decision in the drivers’ standings of the 2007 DTM.

The tenth and final DTM round of the year will be taking place at the Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg, October 14th.

Jamie Green (winner, Salzgitter AMG Mercedes): “I am totally relieved. When you are competing as the reigning champion of the Formula 3 Euro Series, expectations are quite high. During the season, I have been able to show that I can live up to these expectations. But often enough, I also dropped back while on course for a podium finish because of stupid situations, for which others were to blame. But that is typical for the DTM. It is up and down, it is exciting and fascinating. I am happy that I got my campaign underway again with this victory. This victory allows me to pay back something to all those who have kept their faith in me.”

Bruno Spengler (2nd place, DaimlerChrysler Bank AMG Mercedes): “The eight points that I managed to score today are well deserved and I am happy for being only two points down on Mattias Ekström in the championship. The other drivers weren’t making life particularly easy for me either, but these were all position fights and therefore were all right for me. I am just happy that I made it to the finish with my car in one piece. In the final at Hockenheim, I will be giving everything, as in every race. I am looking forward to an exciting showdown with three title candidates.”

Paul di Resta (3rd place, JAWA4U.de AMG Mercedes): “The DTM season has been running well for me. It is my learning year in the DTM and I have learned a lot, also from mistakes. At Hockenheim, we can do what we already did in the first race, which is finishing on the podium. There, my car was really strong. Hopefully, I can further improve next year.”

Mercedes-Benz motorsport director Norbert Haug: “Now, we have to take a close look at the situation and only after that, one can make a thorough judgement. You always have to look at the overall picture first and then draw a conclusion. At the end of the main straight, Mika Häkkinen was much quicker than Martin Tomczyk. Maybe, the overtaking manoeuvre was a little bit optimistic, but he didn’t do it on purpose. Mattias Ekström was driving very harshly in the situation with Daniel la Rosa. According to me, there was no reason to withdraw the cars from the race. I want to emphasise at this occasion that for us, there was no team order and that the actions at the track were by no means a revenge for Zandvoort. We would never do something like that. Now, emotions will cool down and we will see an exciting season final at Hockenheim.”

Audi motorsport director Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich: “Surely, the decision to withdraw all the cars from the race was far from easy for me. I am aware that this has cost us points as well that might be important in the end. We have come to Barcelona to have a fair race. But the things that happened here on the track were initially much and in the end, with the situation against Mike Rockenfeller, too much. That was definitely not what we had wanted to see here. Motorsport must be fair competition and that wasn’t the case in this race. Of course, cars touch on the track in a hard and fair race. But when the contact is the reason that cars retire, it is a form of behaviour that we do not want to see in motorsport. The decision to withdraw the cars from the race was meant to show that we don’t want that.”