DTM: Oschersleben

[Plex]

Di Resta wins again at Oschersleben

Paul di Resta recovered from a botched pitstop to take his second victory in a row in the DTM race at Oschersleben.

The Scot had the race under control in the early stages. But he lost three seconds at his first pitstop, which handed first place to his championship leading Mercedes team-mate Bruno Spengler.

Spengler then made his second stop relatively early in an attempt to cover off a charging Timo Scheider (Audi). That plan failed, effectively handing Scheider the lead. But di Resta was still out front with one more stop to make.

The Force India test driver then put in a stunning set of laps in his second stint to make up for the time lost in the pits, meaning he could emerge from his second stop back in the lead.

Just before di Resta pitted, Scheider's race and his faint title hopes were dashed when he suffered a left rear puncture while running just in front of Spengler. The puncture appeared to be caused by Scheider running wide into the gravel on the exit of the fast esses towards the end of lap 34.

That left Spengler in a comfortable second, while Mattias Ekstrom was up to third for Audi after a quiet race. The Swede had to stay focused in the closing stages though, as Mercedes' Gary Paffett charged up behind him.

Paffett decided against making a challenge, after his race had been hindered by a penalty for a move he put on Audi's Martin Tomczyk earlier on.

The pair had made slight contact as Paffett took sixth early in the race at Turn 2, and he was outraged when race control ordered him to give the place back to the German.

Paffett used his strong pace to jump Tomczyk and fellow Audi man Mike Rockenfeller during the pitstops, but he was unable to do anything about Ekstrom on track.

The 2008 Audis of Rockenfeller and Alexandre Premat completed the top six, while the points were rounded out by Jamie Green (Persson Mercedes) and Tomczyk.

Pos Driver Car Time/Gap
1. Paul di Resta Mercedes 1h11m05.254s
2. Bruno Spengler Mercedes + 1.271s
3. Mattias Ekstrom Audi + 3.562s
4. Gary Paffett Mercedes + 4.602s
5. Mike Rockenfeller Audi + 21.896s
6. Alexandre Premat Audi + 26.001s
7. Jamie Green Mercedes + 26.709s
8. Martin Tomczyk Audi + 30.251s
9. Ralf Schumacher Mercedes + 35.541s
10. Susie Stoddart Mercedes + 51.086s
11. Timo Scheider Audi + 56.715s
12. Maro Engel Mercedes + 1m00.734s
13. Oliver Jarvis Audi + 1m12.896s
14. David Coulthard Mercedes + 1m15.711s

Retirements:

Katherine Legge Audi 22 laps
Markus Winkelhock Audi 3 laps
Cong Fu Cheng Mercedes 1 lap
Miguel Molina Audi 0 laps

Autosport