Spengler wins nail-biting race and closes in on Paffett

Bruno Spengler won his third race of the year for BMW Team Schnitzer. The Canadian finished ahead of title rivals Gary Paffett and Jamie Green. The first four positions were actually from the grid positions, with Dirk Werner coming home in fourth.

Adrien Tambay was forced to start from the pitlane due to alternator problems. At the start Mattias Ekström stalled on his grid spot, causing trouble behind him with Tomczyk and Priaulx risking hitting him. The usual fIrst corner mess of Oschersleben saw Priaulx being forced out of the line by an Audi, who had been hit under braking by Robert Wickens, while Ralf Schumacher spun on the approach to the right hander after making contact with Mortara.

On the sixth lap Mortara started to fall back, passed by Priaulx who was making his way up through the field after having had problems at the start. The Italian retired at the end of the lap.

On the tenth lap Filipe Albuquerque pulled a nice move on Tomczyk. The German had to defend from Christian Vietoris as well, and Timo Scheider took advantage of it by passing the Mercedes. In the meantime Rahel Frey parked her car on the outside of the first corner.

A battle between Tomczyk and Scheider saw a group of cars behind them pack up. During an attack by the Audi driver Vietoris made a mistake at the first corner and spun, losing two places to Spengler and Hand.

On lap 13, just before the pit stop window opened, the race standings were: Spengler led from Paffett, Green, Werner, Farfus, Rockenfeller, Wickens, Albuquerque, Tomczyk, Scheider and Ekström. The leader stopped immediately, leaving the lead to championship rival Jamie Green. The Brit stopped on lap 15, and came out further back on the BMW driver.

On lap 20 Tomczyk stopped in the pit lane due to mechanical problems, most likely the radiator, from thirteenth place as Vietoris stopped from fifth, completing the first round of pit-stops. Priaulx was the first to do his second stop on lap 25 after suffering from some kind of problem, as the triple World Champion had lapped more than three seconds off his normal pace in the three laps. Two laps later Jamie Green and Dirk Werner, who were third and fourth respectively, pitted on the same lap, with the BMW Team Schnitzer mechanics putting the German back on its wheels four tenths earlier than the Mercedes, narrowing the gap down to under a second.

Spengler stopped on lap 28, imitated by rival Gary Paffett a lap later. The Mercedes emerged from the pitlane about one second behind Ekström
, who was yet to stop, and three seconds behind the BMW.

After the pit stops Spengler led ahead of Paffett and Green. Dirk Werner was in fourth ahead of Augusto Farfus, who was making the most out of a great start. Rockenfeller was the best-placed Audi ahead of Wickens, Albuquerque, Ekström and Scheider.

On lap 38 Ekström made a clean pass on team-fellow Audi driver Albuquerque and jumped up to eighth. A lap later Priaulx retired due to the problems which had evidently affected him through the race.

Spengler spent his third stint trying to control the gap from Paffett, but with about ten laps to go the Mercedes emerged as being quicker than the BMW and the Brit started making up for the gap. After a couple of laps, Spengler appeared to be in control again and the gap stabilized again. Behind the leading duo Jamie Green was comfortably ahead of Werner, who actually had to look in his mirrors towards the end of the race as Farfus and Rockenfeller got closer and closer.

In the closing stages of the race Paffett narrowed the gap down to less than one second as the BMW suffered from much more tyre degradation. However the Brit was never able to attack his BMW rival, who won the third race of the season ahead of the Mercedes. Paffett was a quite distant third, while Werner came home fourth ahead of Farfus and Rockenfeller. Robert Wickens crossed the line in seventh ahead of Mattias Ekström, Filipe Albuquerque and Timo Scheider, who rounded up the top ten just ahead of Joey Hand.

Spengler has moved to second in the standings, eleven points behind Paffett. Jamie Green slipped down to third in the championship, eight points away from Spengler.

BMW Team Schnitzer director Charly Lamm commented:”This race was nail biting, especially in the last few laps when Paffett was getting closer and closer, in the end it was all about tyres and controlling the race, which Bruno managed to do perfectly. Everything was fantastic: The strategy, the pit stops, our driver, everything. I know it’s our third win this season, but I think it’s still too early to think about the championship, but for sure we are in contention.”

Next up for the DTM is Valencia, Spain, in two weeks.