Photo: DTM Media

Scheider takes 50th DTM victory for Audi

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Just as he did last year, Timo Scheider has won the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters race at Oschersleben. He led home an Audi 1-2-3, as he was followed over the line by Mattias Ekström and Martin Tomczyk.

Tom Kristensen had started from pole position, but after being judged to have not lined up in his grid slot properly, was issued with a drive through penalty. He served the penalty on lap six, and fell back in the field.

The eight time winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans race, fought back well and made a last lap pass on Jamie Green to claim the final points scoring position of eighth.

Timo Scheider inherited the lead after Kristensen’s drive through, and proceeded to drive a perfect race to claim his first victory of the 2009 DTM season

Tomczyk qualified ahead of Ekström, and continued to run ahead of the Swede until he made his pit stop on lap 18, where he came out behind Ekström.

During both of their pit stops, Ekström and Scheider had worn tyres fitted. The strategy clearly worked, as the tyres they had used in qualifying performed well in race conditions on the Oschersleben circuit.

Paul Di Resta enjoyed a fantastic start in his AMG Mercedes, he made up four places off the line to move from 9th to 5th by the end of the first lap. He made up one more place through the race, thanks to a fantastic in-lap for his first stop, which catapulted him ahead of Oliver Jarvis.

The championship leader coming into the Oschersleben weekend, Gary Paffett, enjoyed a fantastic race, as he climbed up from 12th to finish behind Paul Di Resta in 5th.

Johannes Seidlitz made contact with his team mate Tomas Kostka early on. Seidlitz was forced to retire. Kostka lost a lap due to the incident, but continued in the race.

In the end it was a comfortable race for Audi, who claimed their 50th victory in the DTM, in what is their centennial year as a car manufacturer. Celebrations will be plentiful after this result.

As it stands in the driver’s championship standings, Gary Paffett and Mattias Ekström are tied at the top on 28 points, with Timo Scheider close behind on 27. Ekström is the only one of the trio not to have a race victory in the 2009 season so far.

Great thanks must be expressed to Björn Tarrach for providing the TouringCarTimes with up-to-date information live from the DTM meeting at Oschersleben this weekend.