Paffet secures Mercedes one-two

Gary Paffett has won the DTM race at the Lausitzring. He won not with great racing, but with a perfect strategy. The Briton started from seventh on the grid and only pitted after the other drivers already had taken both their mandatory pit stops. Lapping a second a lap faster than Ekström, he came out ahead to retain the lead. Bruno Spengler followed his late stop strategy for the second pit stop and took second place. Mattias Ekström was left down in third.

At the start Mattias Ekström got away clean and kept the lead until he made his first pit stop on lap 14, but from then on Paffett took over the lead in the race, not to give it away anymore.

Timo Scheider was fourth going into the first corner, but lost a place in the end as well due to the perfect strategy from the Mercedes drivers. Paul di Resta finished between Ekström and Scheider in fourth.

Biggest loser of the strategies was Mike Rockenfeller. He was second into the first corner at the start, but after the two mandatory pit stops, he fell down to seventh place, behind Mercedes driver Jamie Green.

An unlucky race for both Tom Kristensen as Martin Tomczyk. Kristensen received a pit stop penalty for contact with Mathias Lauda, meaning he had to stay in the pits three seconds longer during his pit stop. He dropped back to the back of the field and finished the race in twelfth, one lap down on the leaders.

Martin Tomczyk got a drive through penalty for not lining up on the grid correctly. The German driver said he did that because otherwise he couldn’t see the lights. A couple of laps after he had taken his drive through he retired in the pits with damaged cooling, which he claimed was caused by fellow Audi drivers.