Tomczyk wins as Audi dominates
Martin Tomczyk capped a dominant weekend by leading home an Audi lockout of the top four places in the DTM race at the Nurburgring
The pole-sitting German led his Abt Sportsline team-mates Timo Scheider and Mattias Ekstrom by a narrow margin throughout the race, but he was never under any serious pressure.
The three 2009-spec Audis cruised away from the field as soon as Ekstrom and Scheider had disposed of Bruno Spengler on the opening lap, and their tussle with the Mercedes driver enabled Markus Winkelhock to sneak into a fourth place that he would easily hold to the finish.
Spengler eventually fell behind Jamie Green's one-year-old car as well during the final round of pit stops, and he only just held onto sixth place ahead of Ralf Schumacher, who had a solid run to seventh place.
The ex-Formula 1 driver was the fastest of the 2009-spec Mercedes in the latter stages of the race, enabling him to close on Spengler while pulling away from Gary Paffett, who took the final point.
The British driver has fallen behind Scheider and Ekstrom in the championship, as he could only salvage a point after recovering from a collision with Katherine Legge on the opening lap.
While Paffett was coming back through the field, there were some dramatic incidents ahead of him. Paul di Resta was forced to retire when his rear wing came off at high speed just before the first corner, while Phoenix Audi team-mates Oliver Jarvis and Alexandre Premat lost points-paying positions when the Frenchman slammed into the side of the Brit under braking at the same place, forcing both to retire.
Pos Driver Car Time/Gap 1. Martin Tomczyk Audi 1h10m19.195s 2. Timo Scheider Audi +1.205s 3. Mattias Ekstrom Audi +2.969s 4. Markus Winkelhock Audi +16.029s 5. Jamie Green Mercedes +23.349s 6. Bruno Spengler Mercedes +27.502s 7. Ralf Schumacher Mercedes +28.096s 8. Gary Paffett Mercedes +35.719s 9. Mathias Lauda Mercedes +42.148s 10. Mike Rockenfeller Audi +1m06.232s 11. Susie Stoddart Mercedes +1m09.555s 12. Maro Engel Mercedes +1m12.325s 13. Christian Bakkerud Audi +1 laps 14. Johannes Seidlitz Audi +1 laps 15. Tomas Kostka Audi +1 laps Retirements Paul di Resta Mercedes 15 laps Tom Kristensen Audi 13 laps Alexandre Prémat Audi 7 laps Oliver Jarvis Audi 6 laps Katherine Legge Audi 0 laps
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