Paffett takes victory and points lead

The 2005 champion shadowed pole-sitter Oliver Jarvis in the early stages of the race, but seized the lead after the Audi driver took a trip through the grass on lap 14.

Jarvis recovered to hold position behind the Mercedes, but he did not have the pace to keep up with Paffett, who pulled away into the distance after that.

Jarvis and his Phoenix Audi team-mate Alexandre Premat then ran in a steady second and third, until their pace dropped in the latter stages, and both offered little resistance to Mattias Ekstrom who came through to take second place.

Ekstrom had been further down the order after a disastrous qualifying for the Abt Audi squad, but he was able to run a good pace on a very long first stint, and had some help from team-mates including Martin Tomczyk, who gave way to the man leading Audi's title charge.

It was not all easy for the Swede though, as shortly after his first stop he barged his way past Mercedes' Paul di Resta to take what was fifth place at the time.

Behind Ekstrom, Jarvis held off Premat for third, while Tomczyk came home fifth after a solid race, and Markus Winkelhock took advantage of making a late second pitstop to vault up the order to take sixth.

Bruno Spengler had run third in the early stages, but a late first stop did not work out for him, as cars on fresher tyres were able to leapfrog the Canadian. He had to settle for seventh, just ahead of reigning champion Timo Scheider, and his title rival from last year di Resta, who lost out during the pitstops.

Pos  Driver              Car           Time/Gap
 1.  Gary Paffett        Mercedes  1h05m52.688s
 2.  Mattias Ekstrom     Audi       +    1.431s
 3.  Oliver Jarvis       Audi       +    6.235s
 4.  Alexandre Premat    Audi       +    8.970s
 5.  Martin Tomczyk      Audi       +   10.984s
 6.  Markus Winkelhock   Audi       +   12.850s
 7.  Bruno Spengler      Mercedes   +   13.353s
 8.  Timo Scheider       Audi       +   13.806s
 9.  Paul di Resta       Mercedes   +   14.319s
10.  Maro Engel          Mercedes   +   14.655s
11.  Tom Kristensen      Audi       +   27.609s
12.  Jamie Green         Mercedes   +   28.778s
13.  Ralf Schumacher     Mercedes   +   41.108s
14.  Susie Stoddart      Mercedes   +   41.826s
15.  Christian Bakkerud  Audi       + 1m30.699s

Retirements:

     Mike Rockenfeller   Audi      32 laps
     Tomas Kostka        Audi      19 laps
     Katherine Legge     Audi      17 laps
     Mathias Lauda       Mercedes  11 laps