Kristensen ends DTM victory drought
Tom Kristensen took his first win since 2006 in the DTM season opener at Hockenheim, after dominant leader Mattias Ekstrom suffered a puncture on the penultimate lap
Ekstrom had been untouchable throughout the race, and held a lead of almost 10 seconds in the closing stages. But he was forced to pit at the start of the final lap when his left rear tyre fell apart.
That left his Audi team-mate Kristensen, who had spent the whole race with reigning champion Timo Scheider all over the back of him, in place to take the win just two days after announcing that he will retire from the series at the end of the year.
Behind them, Oliver Jarvis was rewarded for a strong drive in his 2008 Audi with a podium finish, after shadowing the three Abt Sportsline cars for the whole race.
Markus Winkelhock made sure Audi locked out the top four places, while Paul di Resta was the top Mercedes in fifth place - more than 20 seconds behind the winner.
The year-old Mercedes of Maro Engel and Jamie Green sandwiched the delayed Ekstrom in sixth and eighth, ahead of Ralf Schumacher, who had an incident-packed race.
The German thought his day was done on the opening lap, when Gary Paffett's bonnet flew up in the air and smashed the German's windscreen. The roof caved in, but Mercedes was able to get him back out on the lead lap thanks to a safety car.
Paffett retired just a couple of corners later, due to damage he sustained running into the back of Alexandre Premat at the hairpin.
Bruno Spengler was another Mercedes driver to have a tough day. After starting at the back, the Canadian had got ahead of di Resta before he was forced to park with an apparent suspension problem.
Pos Driver Car Time 1. Tom Kristensen Audi 1h05m35.819s 2. Timo Scheider Audi + 0.353s 3. Oliver Jarvis Audi + 4.450s 4. Markus Winkelhock Audi + 10.840s 5. Paul di Resta Mercedes + 21.832s 6. Maro Engel Mercedes + 24.977s 7. Mattias Ekstrom Audi + 36.730s 8. Jamie Green Mercedes + 46.347s 9. Ralf Schumacher Mercedes + 55.699s 10. Mathias Lauda Mercedes + 1m00.978s 11. Tomas Kostka Audi + 1m15.339s 12. Katherine Legge Audi + 1m20.882s 13. Johannes Seidlitz Audi + 1m23.774s 14. Christian Bakkerud Audi + 1m35.921s Retirements: Martin Tomczyk Audi 24 Bruno Spengler Mercedes 24 Susie Stoddart Mercedes 24 Mike Rockenfeller Audi 1 Alexandre Premat Audi 1 Gary Paffett Mercedes 0
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