Ekstrom inherits victory at Brands
Mattias Ekstrom took his first win of the season at Brands Hatch, inheriting victory after his two major rivals hit trouble
Audi teammate Tom Kristensen had dominated the first three quarters of the race from pole position, shadowing second-placed Jamie Green's pit strategy in order to stay ahead of the Briton after both mandatory stops.
However, something appeared to break on the front left of Kristensen's A4 as he entered Clearways with 17 laps to go, and he locked up and ran headfirst into the tyre barriers.
The Dane got his car back to the pits but it was too badly damaged to continue.
Green therefore inherited a three-second lead from a closing Ekstrom, and it looked as if he could take his first DTM victory on home soil. However, the Mercedes driver made a small mistake at Graham Hill Bend and ran wide off the circuit.
Ekstrom therefore took the lead with just 12 of the race's 85 laps to go and he held on to take a comfortable win, which vaults him up from tenth to fifth in the championship standings.
Green followed Ekstrom home six seconds behind, having got back on the track quickly after his mistake, to equal his best DTM finish and move himself back into the championship reckoning in third place.
With Kristensen's retirement, Bernd Schneider moved himself into the championship lead with third place.
Having started sixth, Schneider carefully worked his way up ahead of Ekstrom after the first stop, however he was caught in traffic in the middle stint, which meant after the second pitstop he ended up behind Ekstrom and Green.
Martyn Tomczyk secured fourth ahead of a battling Christian Abt. Abt took fifth position late in the race after a late pass of Bruno Spengler at Graham Hill Bend.
Jean Alesi, coming back from a terrible start, also managed to take advantage of Abt's bravery to slip through as well into sixth, ahead of the Canadian.
Mika Hakkinen had a problematic race. He left the pit exit after his first stop with his fuel can still attached to his Mercedes, however he wiggled his car to successfully shake it off before he got back onto the track.
However, he was later given a drive-through penalty for passing backmarker Daniel La Rosa under yellow flags at Paddock Hill Bend.
Those yellow flags were out to rescue the stricken Audi of Vanina Ickx, who had spun off into the gravel while running towards the tail of the field.
The only other major accident befell Frank Stippler, who crashed early in the race, going off into the gravel at the Druid's hairpin on the second lap.
CLASSIFIED: Pos Driver Make Time 1. Mattias Ekstrom Audi 06 1h 03:31.829 2. Jamie Green Mercedes 06 + 5.957 3. Bernd Schneider Mercedes 06 + 13.837 4. Martin Tomczyk Audi 06 + 17.834 5. Christian Abt Audi 05 + 19.567 6. Jean Alesi Mercedes 05 + 21.758 7. Bruno Spengler Mercedes 06 + 26.013 8. A. Margaritis Mercedes 05 + 35.183 9. Pierre Kaffer Audi 05 + 36.034 10. Timo Scheider Audi 05 + 36.272 11. Mika Hakkinen Mercedes 06 + 38.537 12. Daniel La Rosa Mercedes 05 + 38.867 13. Stefan Mucke Mercedes 05 + 1 lap 14. Jeroen Bleekemolen Audi 04 + 1 lap 15. Mathias Lauda Mercedes 04 + 1 lap 16. Susie Stoddart Mercedes 04 + 1 lap 17. H.H. Frentzen Audi 06 + 4 laps 18. Tom Kristensen Audi 06 + 17 laps NOT CLASSIFIED: Driver Make Laps Vanina Ickx Audi 04 43 Frank Stippler Audi 05 1 Fastest lap: Bernd, 43.408 on lap 36
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