DTM: Lausitz

[Plex]

Spengler denies di Resta at Lausitz

Bruno Spengler took advantage of misfortune in the pits for Paul di Resta to take victory in the DTM race at Lausitz on Sunday.

The pair had comfortably led the race throughout, with polesitter di Resta edging away from his team-mate early on before holding the gap at around three seconds.

Spengler appeared to have no answer to the Scot, but he was handed the lead when di Resta was delayed in his second stop by a problem with the left-rear wheel.

The Canadian pushed while he had clear track to jump di Resta, and then pulled away in the final stint to take his first win since the Norisring in 2007.

Di Resta's charge then faded towards the end, while behind the pair of 2009-spec Mercedes, Jamie Green was a close third after another impressive drive in his older-spec car.

The British driver had grabbed the place at the start from Mattias Ekstrom, who made a poor getaway and then hit more trouble when he was tagged into a spin at Turn 5 by Alexandre Premat.

The Swede's spinning Audi was then hit by Timo Scheider and David Coulthard. While Scheider rejoined after a pitstop, Ekstrom and Coulthard's races were run due to excessive damage.

The first lap commotion enabled Mike Rockenfeller into fourth, and the German spent the race of the race keeping Gary Paffett at bay, before pulling clear of the Mercedes driver in the final stint.

Behind Paffett, Martin Tomczyk took sixth, but the German was chased home by Susie Stoddart, who took her first ever points finish in the DTM with an strong seventh.

The Scot had benefited from the first lap chaos to jump from 12th on the first lap, but after that she kept Tomczyk in sight throughout, and was able to maintain a solid gap to Scheider once he began to come back through the field.

Pos Driver Car Time/Gap
1. Bruno Spengler Mercedes 1h12m32.740s
2. Paul di Resta Mercedes +4.542
3. Jamie Green Mercedes +5.323
4. Mike Rockenfeller Audi +8.350
5. Gary Paffett Mercedes +12.358
6. Martin Tomczyk Audi +15.288
7. Susie Stoddart Mercedes +17.105
8. Timo Scheider Audi +26.430
9. Ralf Schumacher Mercedes +34.533
10. Markus Winkelhock Audi +42.619
11. Oliver Jarvis Audi +47.559
12. Franky Cheng Mercedes +48.718
13. Miguel Molina Audi +1:02.319
14. Katherine Legge Audi +1:13.593
15. Maro Engel Mercedes +1:17.396

Not classified

David Coulthard Mercedes 3 laps
Mattias Ekstrom Audi 1 lap
Alexandre Premat Audi 0 laps

Autosport