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Win from Pole Di Resta


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Paul Di Resta, AMG Mercedes C-Class, took his first DTM race win from his first pole position

Paul Di Resta, AMG Mercedes C-Class, took his first DTM race win from his first pole position

Paul Di Resta, AMG Mercedes C-Class, took his first DTM race win from his first pole position

Paul Di Resta, AMG Mercedes C-Class, took his first DTM race win from his first pole position

Red Bull Audi A4 DTM #1 (Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline), Mattias Ekström and Red Bull Audi A4 DTM #2 (Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline)

Red Bull Audi A4 DTM #1 (Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline), Mattias Ekström and Red Bull Audi A4 DTM #2 (Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline)

Paul Di Resta, AMG Mercedes C-Class, took his first DTM race win from his first pole position

Paul Di Resta, AMG Mercedes C-Class, took his first DTM race win from his first pole position

Paul Di Resta, AMG Mercedes C-Class, took his first DTM race win from his first pole position

Paul Di Resta, AMG Mercedes C-Class, took his first DTM race win from his first pole position

Gebrauchtwagen_plus_Top Service Audi A4 DTM #10 (Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline), Timo Scheider

Gebrauchtwagen_plus_Top Service Audi A4 DTM #10 (Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline), Timo Scheider

 

Paul Di Resta (AMG Mercedes C-Class) won the fourth round of the 2008 DTM at the Lausitzring; his first win in the championship in his 14th DTM race. Following the 1-2 victory of Jamie Green and Paul Di Resta in Mugello two weeks ago, it was the second consecutive win for Mercedes-Benz within two weeks this year and 143rd for the brand out of 304 DTM/ITC races since 1988. After four races of the 2008 season, Mercedes and Audi are tied on victories with two each.

Paul Di Resta is the second youngest winner in DTM history; today he won at the age of 22 years and 32 days. Only his cousin Dario Franchitti was younger when he achieved his first DTM win; in Mugello 1995 he won with an AMG Mercedes C-Class at the age of 22 years and two days.

After 51 laps, Jamie Green (Salzgitter AMG Mercedes C-Class) finished fifth, 15.911sec behind Di Resta. Bruno Spengler (Mercedes-Benz Bank AMG C-Class) ended up sixth ahead of Bernd Schneider (Genuine Parts AMG Mercedes C-Class).



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In the overall ranking, Paul Di Resta who started from pole position and posted the fastest lap of the race moved up from fourth to second place; with 23 points he is three points behind leader Timo Scheider (Audi/26 points) who was second today. Jamie Green is third overall with 21 points and Bruno Spengler follows in sixth with 14 points.

The other C-Class drivers: Gary Paffett (stern AMG Mercedes C-Class) came home 10th and was the best driver with a 2007 Mercedes-Benz. DTM rookie Maro Engel (JungeSterne AMG Mercedes C-Class) came home 11th ahead of Mathias Lauda (Pixum AMG Mercedes C-Class) and Ralf Schumacher (Trilux AMG Mercedes C-Class). Susie Stoddart (TV Spielfilm AMG Mercedes C-Class) stopped in the pits on lap 41 due to brake problems.

A crowd of 80,000 attended the fourth round of the 2008 season during the weekend, a new record for DTM races at the Lausitzring.

Paul Di Resta (2008 AMG Mercedes C-Klasse), winner
“I am really happy and I cordially thank my team for a great job throughout the weekend and for a perfect car. Our pit stops were great. The race was not as easy as it might have looked like; I had to stay focussed and another Safety Car period would have destroyed my advantage. After second place in Mugello and my victory here I hope this will continue. Now I look forward to the next race at the Norisring.”


Jamie Green (2008 Salzgitter AMG Mercedes C-Klasse), fifth
“An interesting race. In the beginning, there were five cars very close together behind Paul. I had the chance to overtake Martin Tomczyk ahead of me, but then I didn’t want to take chances. My grid position determined my result.”


Bruno Spengler (2008 Mercedes-Benz Bank AMG C-Klasse), sixth
“I suffered from oversteer throughout and was therefore not able to go Paul’s pace. Also my pit stops were not perfect. It’s a pity – starting from the front row I had hoped for a better result. At least I wanted to score more points. Now I hope for the Norisring race in six weeks time. There are still seven races ahead of us and everything is possible.”


Bernd Schneider (2008 Original-Teile AMG Mercedes C-Klasse), seventh
“My start was good and the car ran great. However, if you want to achieve a better result and score more points in the DTM you need a better grid position.”


Gary Paffett (2007 stern AMG Mercedes C-Klasse), 10th
“From 16th on the grid the 10th place is still ok. It’s a shame that I didn’t score points – with a better qualifying yesterday I would certainly have achieved a better result today.”


Maro Engel (2007 JungeSterne AMG Mercedes C-Klasse), 11th

“I was quick off the line and improved by a couple of positions. In the course of the race, however, I suffered from oversteer and the balance was not ok. Therefore, Gary was able to pass me.”


Mathias Lauda (2007 Pixum AMG Mercedes C-Klasse), 12th
“I made a good start and pushed hard from the beginning, that helped me to improve from 19th on the grid to 12th. No driver overtook me on the track and the fight with Ralf was really fun.”


Ralf Schumacher (2007 Trilux AMG Mercedes C-Klasse), 13th
“I started well, but I had to avoid the accident of Tom Kristensen and lost several positions. My car had a good speed, but on this track overtaking is almost impossible, therefore I was not able to move up. I will try to qualify higher up the grid for the next race; that should be the basis for a better race result.”

Susie Stoddart (2007 TV-Spielfilm AMG Mercedes C-Klasse),
retired
“I had brake problems throughout the race which got worse and worse. Towards the end it was just impossible to continue and I had to give up.”

Dr Wolfgang Ullrich (Head of Audi Motorsport)
"We can be satisfied with the result. We saw a superb team performance today with strong pit stops, which helped to decide the race. With places two to four, the extension of our lead in the championship and with equal weight as our rivals at the Norisring, this has been a successful weekend for Audi.”
 
Timo Scheider (GW:plus/Top Service Audi A4 DTM #10)
"A good weekend for Audi. We knew this would be a tough round for us. With my second place and positions three and four for Mattias (Ekström) and Martin (Tomczyk), we can be proud. For my boys and me, of course it’s great to go to the Norisring with a three-point lead in the championship.”
 
Mattias Ekström (Red Bull Audi A4 DTM #1)
"It really feels good to go home today with third place. I’m only six points behind the leader of the standings when we go to the Norisring six weeks from now. That’s a great starting base. Also, during this weekend at the EuroSpeedway, we managed adapting my Audi A4 DTM to my driving style even better than before. All in all, this lets me enjoy the small summer break in a very relaxed mood.”
 
Martin Tomczyk (Red Bull Audi A4 DTM #2)
"We can be satisfied with the result. My car was very good, my own performance flawless. With a different strategy, I might have been able to keep Mattias behind me.”
 
Oliver Jarvis (Best Buddies Audi A4 DTM #15)
"A good race with a fast car. Unfortunately, I got entangled in a starting tussle, which made me lose three, four positions. But thanks to good pit stops I was able to make up ground again. Eighth place is a good result for our team.”
 
Mike Rockenfeller (S line Audi A4 DTM #18)
"Tenth place is the same position I started from. I’d been hoping for more, particularly because I had such a fantastic start and was able to make up a few positions straight away. But my car was simply not good enough today, and I lost places again to Alex and Oliver.”
 
Christijan Albers (Audi A4 DTM #21)
"My qualifying was good, but the race, unfortunately, wasn’t. In the first two corners I was brushed and all the front flaps broke off. Actually, the car was no longer drivable after that, but I finished the race anyhow.”
 
Katherine Legge (Audi A4 DTM #20)
"At the start I wasn’t able to see the lights and just followed the other cars. Later, I had a nice duel with Susie Stoddart, who did a good job of defending her position until she had to pit. All in all, I’m satisfied with the race because I made another step forwards in my learning curve.”
 
Tom Kristensen (Audi A4 DTM #9)
"In the first turn I was put in a sandwich from left and right and turned around in the third corner. During the safety car period, the team performed a very quick repair stop. But the car was simply too heavily damaged to be able to still drive good lap times.”
 
Markus Winkelhock (Playboy Audi A4 DTM #19)
"The Lausitzring is not a good place for me. Last year, my race ended in a tyre stack, and so did this one. In the first turn, someone hit me in the rear, and in the third it happened again. At first, I thought that only one of the wishbones was bent, but then – on the straight/finish at over 200 kph – my tyre blew.”
 
Alexandre Prémat (Audi Bank/Shell Helix Audi A4 DTM #14)
"Definitely a strong race. I gave everything from start to finish and was able to keep the pace of the 2008-spec cars.”
 
Hans-Jürgen Abt (Team Director Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline)
"I’m very happy about the race. Our team again showed a superb pit performance, which enabled us to overtake three Mercedes cars. On the track, our drivers were able to keep the pace of our rivals. Congratulations to Paul di Resta as well, who drove a strong race.”
 
Ernst Moser (Team Director Audi Sport Team Phoenix)
"Like at Mugello, we managed to achieve all of our goals. Arguably, we can’t do any better with the car than this, unless the 2008-spec models encounter some kind of problems. Our drivers were strong, and so was our team with the pit stops. Well done.”
 
Arno Zensen (Team Director Audi Sport Team Rosberg)
"We were lucky with Markus’s accident, because a lot more could have happened. After all, the crash occurred at the fastest place of the circuit. ‘Rocky’s’ car was simply too slow. Now we need to find out why. We could have probably done better than tenth place.”
 

The results at EuroSpeedway Lausitz
1 Paul di Resta (Mercedes) 51 laps in 1h 10m 23.407s
2 Timo Scheider (GW:plus/Top Service Audi A4 DTM) + 5.562s
3 Mattias Ekström (Red Bull Audi A4 DTM) + 8.629s
4 Martin Tomczyk (Red Bull Audi A4 DTM) + 10.379s
5 Jamie Green (Mercedes) + 15.911s
6 Bruno Spengler (Mercedes) + 18.188s
7 Bernd Schneider (Mercedes) + 20.668s
8 Oliver Jarvis (Best Buddies Audi A4 DTM) + 34.508s
9 Mike Rockenfeller (S line Audi A4 DTM) + 35.107s
10 Gary Paffett (Mercedes) + 35.752s
11 Maro Engel (Mercedes) + 50.698s
12 Mathias Lauda (Mercedes) + 57.739s
13 Ralf Schumacher (Mercedes) + 58.367s
14 Christijan Albers (Audi A4 DTM) + 1m 09.220s
15 Katherine Legge (Audi A4 DTM) + 1m 11.202s
16 Tom Kristensen (Audi A4 DTM) - 1 lap
17 Susie Stoddart (Mercedes) - 11 laps

Not classified:

Markus Winkelhock (Audi) - 49 laps

Disqualified:

Alexandre Prémat (Audi Bank/Shell Helix Audi A4 DTM)