Lausitz DTM: Paffett wins for Mercedes ahead of Rockenfeller's Audi

From second on the grid Paffett jumped into the lead at the first corner ahead of his HWA Mercedes team-mate Christian Vietoris and pulled out an advantage of nearly three seconds before his first pitstop.

When he exited, having switched from soft 'option' Hankook rubber to the harder 'standard' tyres, it was Rockenfeller on his tail, rather than Vietoris.

Rockenfeller, who had completed the first lap in sixth spot, had started on the standard tyres and changed to the options as the pit window opened on lap three.

The pace the Phoenix Audi driver and his early-race rival Robert Wickens were able to exert from their rubber allowed the pair to take second and third places by the time everybody had made a stop.

While Wickens, who stayed ahead of Rockenfeller until being demoted at Turn 1 on lap 25, completed a short middle stint and dropped back from the victory fight after switching to another set of standards, the Audi man remained quick.

Rockenfeller's 39-lap stint on the options was in excess of any of the other victory contenders, but on standard rubber he was unable to stay with Paffett and ceded seven seconds to the Briton over the final 10 laps.

Wickens lost third to Vietoris during the final handful of laps while Jamie Green, who started third, took his best result since moving to Audi with fifth spot for the Abt team.

Daniel Juncadella was one of the stars of the race; the rookie starting 13th in his RSC Mucke Mercedes and finishing sixth, the best of his many passing moves coming late on as he passed Bruno Spengler's Schnitzer BMW at Turn 1.

Spengler, who finished just 0.1s ahead of Mattias Ekstrom's Abt Audi in seventh, is now level on points with Rockenfeller at the top of the championship, but drops behind his rival on countback.

Ekstrom made both of his mandatory stops within the first 10 laps, then ran a 43-lap stint on a set of options. He passed Adrien Tambay, Pascal Wehrlein and Edoardo Mortara inside the final 10 laps.

Martin Tomczyk's dismal season continued as he spun early on after colliding with his RMG BMW team-mate Andy Priaulx. He finished 19th, with Priaulx 22nd.

Results - 52 laps:

Pos  Driver              Team/Car             Time/Gap
 1.  Gary Paffett        HWA Mercedes     1h09m58.562s 
 2.  Mike Rockenfeller   Phoenix Audi          +6.800s
 3.  Christian Vietoris  HWA Mercedes         +11.510s
 4.  Robert Wickens      HWA Mercedes         +12.790s
 5.  Jamie Green         Abt Audi             +14.138s
 6.  Daniel Juncadella   Mucke Mercedes       +19.462s
 7.  Bruno Spengler      Schnitzer BMW        +21.592s
 8.  Mattias Ekstrom     Abt Audi             +21.621s
 9.  Edoardo Mortara     Rosberg Audi         +24.715s
10.  Roberto Merhi       HWA Mercedes         +25.643s
11.  Adrien Tambay       Abt Audi             +27.968s
12.  Augusto Farfus      RBM BMW              +34.178s
13.  Dirk Werner         Schnitzer BMW        +38.000s
14.  Timo Glock          MTEK BMW             +49.305s
15.  Joey Hand           RBM BMW              +53.321s
16.  Miguel Molina       Phoenix Audi         +58.882s
17.  Pascal Wehrlein     Mucke Mercedes       +59.948s
18.  Filipe Albuquerque  Rosberg Audi       +1m03.083s
19.  Martin Tomczyk      RMG BMW            +1m03.107s
20.  Timo Scheider       Abt Audi           +1m08.006s
21.  Marco Wittmann      MTEK BMW               +1 lap
22.  Andy Priaulx        RMG BMW                +1 lap