Di Resta takes first victory at Lausitz

The Mercedes driver stormed away from the field during the first stint of the race, and then controlled the gap in the closing stages to take a comfortable win ahead of Audi's Timo Scheider.

Championship leader Scheider did have good pace in the latter stages, but his chances of victory were lost in the early laps of the race, when di Resta pulled away as his Mercedes teammate Bruno Spengler lacked the pace to keep up in second.

Spengler appeared to have snatched the lead on the run to the first corner at the start by getting alongside di Resta on the inside into Turn 1, but the Scot held on around the outside to convert his pole position into the lead.

Spengler eventually slipped to sixth, losing out to Mattias Ekstrom, Martin Tomczyk and Jamie Green in the pitstops.

Bernd Schneider took seventh, while Alexandre Premat won a fierce battle between three 2007-spec Audis for the final point.

The French driver rejoined from his second pitstop alongside Mike Rockenfeller, and after the pair clashed a couple of times, the German had to concede the place, before falling behind Oliver Jarvis as well.

The older cars were able to fight for eighth thanks to Tom Kristensen dropping out of contention on the first lap, when he was tipped into a spin by Premat just a few corners into the race.

Di Resta is now up to second in the championship, just three points behind Scheider, as the series takes a six-week break before the next race at the Norisring.

Pos  Driver             Car       Time
 1.  Paul Di Resta      Mercedes  1h10:23.407
 2.  Timo Scheider      Audi       +    5.562
 3.  Mattias Ekstrom    Audi       +    8.629
 4.  Martin Tomczyk     Audi       +   10.379
 5.  Jamie Green        Mercedes   +   15.911
 6.  Bruno Spengler     Mercedes   +   18.188
 7.  Bernd Schneider    Mercedes   +   20.668
 8.  Alexandre Premat   Audi       +   26.088
 9.  Oliver Jarvis      Audi       +   34.508
10.  Mike Rockenfeller  Audi       +   35.107
11.  Gary Paffett       Mercedes   +   35.752
12.  Maro Engel         Mercedes   +   50.698
13.  Mathias Lauda      Mercedes   +   57.739
14.  Ralf Schumacher    Mercedes   +   58.367
15.  Christijan Albers  Audi       + 1:09.220
16.  Katherine Legge    Audi       + 1:11.202
17.  Tom Kristensen     Audi       +    1 lap
18.  Susie Stoddart     Mercedes   +  11 laps

Retirements:

     Driver             Car       Laps
     Markus Winkelhock  Audi      2