Paffett takes historic win

The 2005 champion led home Paul di Resta's 2005-spec Mercedes to complete a British and Persson Motorsport 1-2, while Mike Rockenfeller made sure that no 2007-spec cars finished on the podium.

Paffett made a good start to climb from eighth to fifth by Turn 1, and he then made his first pit stop early to get clear track, as the cars ahead of him were holding him up.

The British driver then stayed out for a long second stint, and he was able to rejoin ahead of Mika Hakkinen, who was unable to match Paffett's pace as he tried to hold off Rockenfeller.

Di Resta came all the way from 11th on the grid to take second place, as he waited a long time before making his first stop for the second race running.

While in Hockenheim this cost the reigning F3 Euro Series champion, this time it worked, as he was also able to rejoin just ahead of Hakkinen.

Hakkinen had started from pole, but dropped to third behind Rockenfeller and Mattias Ekstrom, who was given a drive through penalty for a jump start.

Rockenfeller led while under pressure from Hakkinen in the early stages of the race, but once the Finn was ahead after the pitstops, the Audi driver was the faster of the two.

The pair made contact at Turn 2 in the closing laps as Rockenfeller snatched the final place on the podium, while Hakkinen had to pit for a third time due to a puncture, and dropped down to 17th place.

Timo Scheider was the first of the 2007-spec cars in fourth place, narrowly ahead of Matrin Tomczyk and Bernd Schneider, who recovered from last place after struggling to get away off the line.

Ekstrom recovered from his drive through penalty to take eighth place, with a robust pass on Alex Margaritis at Turn 2 on the final lap.

Adam Carroll scored the first top 10 finish of his DTM career, as he took ninth place in his two-year-old Audi.

Pos  Driver             Make      Time
 1.  Gary Paffett       Mercedes  1h 03:30.763
 2.  Paul Di Resta      Mercedes    +    3.753
 3.  Mike Rockenfeller  Audi        +   15.044
 4.  Timo Scheider      Audi        +   19.306
 5.  Martin Tomczyk     Audi        +   19.818
 6.  Bernd Schneider    Mercedes    +   20.043
 7.  Mattias Ekstrom    Audi        +   22.808
 8.  Alex Margaritis    Mercedes    +   24.646
 9.  Adam Carroll       Audi        +   25.567
10.  Christian Abt      Audi        +   27.910
11.  Jamie Green        Mercedes    +   28.390
12.  Lucas Luhr         Audi        +   32.443
13.  Mathias Lauda      Mercedes    +   33.234
14.  Daniel La Rosa     Mercedes    +   35.418
15.  Marco Werner       Audi        +   45.648
16.  Susie Stoddart     Mercedes    + 1:03.690
17.  Mika Hakkinen      Mercedes    + 1:13.762
18.  Frank Biela        Audi        +   2 Laps

Not classified/retirements:

     Bruno Spengler     Mercedes
     Vanina Ickx        Audi