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Di Resta takes first '09 win at Brands

Paul di Resta took his first DTM victory of the season on home soil at Brands Hatch on Sunday

The Mercedes driver led throughout the race, but he did have to survive two late restarts, which wiped out his lead of more than six seconds back to Timo Scheider.

While Katherine Legge was between the top two on the first restart, Scheider had a clear run at the Scot on the second, which came with just two laps to go.

Despite the pressure, di Resta kept his cool to take the victory, while Scheider extended his championship lead over Mattias Ekstrom and Gary Paffett with second place.

Martin Tomczyk took third after showing impressive pace throughout the afternoon. He had been ahead of Scheider after the pitstops, but allowed his team-mate through into Graham Hill Bend, and then protected him from Paffett to the flag.

Paffett finished fourth despite a couple of late challenges from Ekstrom, who was a distant fifth prior to the first safety car period, having lost ground during the pit stops.

Bruno Spengler ran as high as third in the early stages, but he had a scrappy race and lost a lot of time during the pit stops, which eventually dropped him down to sixth place.

The Canadian's finishing position was in doubt for a while, as he was placed under investigation in the closing stages regarding Tom Kristensen's accident that triggered the second safety car, and cost the Dane a points finish. But the stewards decided not to take action against Spengler.

Kristensen had struggled in the race, losing ground to the leaders early on before dropping back to sixth during the pit stops, and his race eventually ended with a heavy impact into the tyre wall at Clearways.

Mike Rockenfeller stayed out of trouble to get into the points in seventh, while Oliver Jarvis recovered from a spin caused by Jamie Green to take the final point.

The Briton's cause was helped in the closing stages when Ralf Schumacher clattered into Markus Winkelhock and Maro Engel at Druids, which allowed Jarvis back into the points.

Pos Driver               Car                 Time
 1. Paul di Resta        Mercedes    1h10m31.345s
 2. Timo Scheider        Audi              +0.896
 3. Martin Tomczyk       Audi              +1.422
 4. Gary Paffett         Mercedes          +1.880
 5. Mattias Ekstrom      Audi              +2.264
 6. Bruno Spengler       Mercedes          +5.048
 7. Mike Rockenfeller    Audi              +6.646
 8. Oliver Jarvis        Audi              +7.197
 9. Ralf Schumacher      Mercedes          +7.733
10. Maro Engel           Mercedes         +10.622
11. Alexandre Premat     Audi              +1 lap
12. Jamie Green          Mercedes          +1 lap
13. Susie Stoddart       Mercedes          +1 lap
14. Tomas Kostka         Audi              +1 lap
15. Katherine Legge      Audi              +1 lap
16. Christian Bakkerud   Audi             +2 laps
17. Johannes Seidlitz    Audi             +4 laps
18. Markus Winkelhock    Audi             +9 laps
19. Tom Kristensen       Audi            +10 laps
20. Mathias Lauda        Mercedes        +18 laps

Fastest lap: Di Resta, 42.387 on lap 3

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