Gary Paffett charges to his second victory of 2018 at the Lausitzring

Mercedes AMG completed a perfect weekend at the Lausitzring with Gary Paffett taking his second win of the season in today’s Race 2, despite a strong challenge from BMW’s Marco Wittmann.

Pole sitter Philipp Eng performed a textbook start to take the first position into the first corner, followed by the Mercedes of Pascal Wehrlein and Paffett. Audi’s Jamie Green opened the door to the non-conventional race strategies pitting from the back of the pack at the end of the first lap.

Wehrlein tried to overtake Eng at Turn 1 on the second lap, with the BMW squeezing the Mercedes to the outside, allowing Paffett to take second position from his team-mate. Eng received a warning for pushing Wehrlein. On the following lap, Paffett completed his move at the same point to take the lead, with Wehrlein taking second from Eng at Turn 6.

Mortara overtook Audi’s Mike Rockenfeller for sixth place, with the 2013 champion also losing out to Mercedes’ Lucas Auer and Daniel Juncadella, receiving a warning for pushing the Spaniard off track.

Wittmann passed fellow BMW driver Eng on lap five as Eriksson closed in on the duo, but the Swede soon came under pressure from Mortara, who took fifth place at Turn 1 on lap eighth. Eriksson would fall under Timo Glock’s grasp, also under pressure from Auer, Juncadella and BMW’s Bruno Spengler. Mortara was found responsible of pushing Eriksson out of the track, with the stewards ordering the Italian to give the position back, as well as handing out a warning.

Mortara regained fifth position from Eriksson on lap 12, with the Swede attacked by Glock. But it would be Auer who would gain the most, taking the inside and outside of Turns 3 and 4 to overtake the BMW duo. Nevertheless, Mortara was again forced to give the position back, having to let Auer, Glock and Eriksson through as the Swede had lost two further positions. Mortara made a last minute decision to come to the pits, braking late and nearly hitting team-mate Juncadella.

The early pit stop strategy paid off for Audi, with Green and Müller slotting among the top ten after everybody had completed their tyre change. Auer was frustrated behind Müller, but managed to overtake at Turn 4 on lap 19. The Swiss continued losing positions, with Eriksson, Mortara, fellow Audi driver Robin Frijns and BMW’s Augusto Farfus also through on the following lap.

Glock was on a charge, overtaking Rockenfeller and Eng to climb up to sixth on lap 25, and with Green and di Resta within sight. Glock overtook Green for fifth on lap 27, with Eng following his team-mate a few corners later.

The final five minutes were spiced up by Wittmann again closing the gap to leading driver Paffett, but the Briton was able to hold off enough for the BMW to not get within DRS distance.

Paffett took his second victory of the season, with Wittmann in second place and Wehrlein completing the podium.

Di Resta managed to hold off Glock to finish fourth, with Green taking sixth place back from Eng. Rockenfeller was eighth, with Eriksson and Frijns completing the top ten.

Paffett said after the race: “Fantastic! You have to take each day as it comes. After quali I knew we had a chance to win the race. I pushed hard to get away but Marco was charging at the end and it wasn’t a wheel-to-wheel battle but rather a mental one. But it was great!”