Tomczyk wins again at Lausitz

The German driver, who ended an 11-year winless streak for Phoenix Racing at Spielberg two weeks ago, produced a fabulous drive in his older-spec Audi to take the lead in the championship from Bruno Spengler.

Tomczyk ran third in the early stages, but outbraked Jamie Green's HWA Mercedes for second place on lap three and reduced his 1.5s deficit to Spengler's identical car to nothing by the time the mandatory pitstop window opened on lap 11.

The combination of running two laps further on his opening stint than Spengler and a maiden stop that was 0.5s quicker than the Canadian's helped Tomczyk gain track position and set up Audi's first win at Lausitz since 2005.

Strategy played a key role in determining the outcome of the race, as was proven by Timo Scheider, who ran only seventh during the early stages, but made his two mandatory stops on laps 30 and 39 (the pit window was lap 11-39) and used his long periods on an empty track to catapult himself into second - his best result of the year.

Spengler finished third, ahead of his team-mate Gary Paffett and Abt driver Oliver Jarvis. The latter had spent the middle part of the race battling with Green, but overhauled his countryman during the second round of pitstops.

Green's decision to run a long second stint backfired as he dropped from fourth to seventh, but he was promoted to sixth by the chequered flag after Miguel Molina - the first man to complete his pitstops - ground to a halt suddenly after bouncing over the exit kerbs at Turn 1 and was forced to give up what would have been a well-deserved best result of the year.

Behind Green the remaining points scorers were Abt returnee Tom Kristensen in seventh and Rosberg Audi man Filipe Albuquerque, who took the best DTM result of his career in eighth.

Christian Vietoris and Maro Engel took their older-spec Mercedes to ninth and 10th positions for the Persson and Mucke squads while Ralf Schumacher, despite being the fastest man on track throughout the middle section of the race, could do no better than 12th after starting back in 17th.

Mattias Ekstrom was one place better off. After losing a number of positions during the opening stint, the former champion then gave away further time when he left his pit with a fuel can still attached to his Abt car at his first stop. The can fell off before he made it into the 'fast lane' part of the pits, meaning he avoided a penalty.

Susie Stoddart failed to start, her Persson Mercedes being pushed off the grid with a technical problem, while Edoardo Mortara also failed to make the finish, his Rosberg Audi sustaining damage after contact with both Engel and Vietoris.

Results - 52 laps:

Pos  Driver                Team/Car              Time/Gap
 1.  Martin Tomczyk        Phoenix Audi      1h10m52.902s
 2.  Timo Scheider         Abt Audi              + 5.436s
 3.  Bruno Spengler        HWA Mercedes         + 14.300s
 4.  Gary Paffett          HWA Mercedes         + 17.604s
 5.  Oliver Jarvis         Abt Audi             + 18.633s
 6.  Jamie Green           HWA Mercedes         + 19.397s
 7.  Tom Kristensen        Abt Audi             + 23.259s
 8.  Filipe Albuquerque    Rosberg Audi         + 24.956s
 9.  Christian Vietoris    Persson Mercedes     + 25.846s
10.  Maro Engel            Mucke Mercedes       + 26.674s
11.  Mattias Ekstrom       Abt Audi             + 29.182s
12.  Ralf Schumacher       HWA Mercedes         + 31.737s
13.  David Coulthard       Mucke Mercedes       + 44.504s
14.  Renger van der Zande  Persson Mercedes     + 46.956s
15.  Rahel Frey            Phoenix Audi         + 59.739s

Retirements:

     Miguel Molina         Abt Audi               42 laps
     Edoardo Mortara       Rosberg Audi           35 laps
     Susie Stoddart        Persson Mercedes        0 laps