Schneider wins at Brands Hatch

The reigning champion benefited from an early first pitstop to move up from sixth on the grid, and for the final 15 laps of the race he survived heavy pressure from the Audis of Martin Tomczyk and Mattias Ekstrom.

Tomczyk had led for a long period in the middle of the race as he made a late second stop, and he narrowly missed out on getting out of the pits ahead of the Mercedes driver.

Front-row starters Mika Hakkinen and Bruno Spengler dropped to fourth and fifth places, despite running out front during the early stages.

Spengler had got ahead of Hakkinen at the start, and he only dropped behind the Finn when he stalled at his second pitstop, which also cost him any chance of a victory.

Jamie Green had a lonely race to sixth place on home soil, on a disappointing day for the British drivers.

Championship leader Paul di Resta only lasted two corners before he was caught up in an accident on the opening lap, and then hit from behind by Alex Margaritis which put him in the gravel.

Mike Rockenfeller was also eliminated in the incident, which was triggered when Markus Winkelhock was tagged into a spin in the middle of the pack.

Gary Paffett had an incident-packed race, but after collisions with Mathias Lauda and Vanina Ickx he could do no better than 10th place.

Alexandre Premat lacked the pace to capitalise on his third place on the grid, and the Frenchman dropped down to seventh place, while Christian Abt dropped from fifth to eighth in his 2006 Audi.

The results mean that Martin Tomczyk now takes over the lead of the championship from di Resta, while Ekstrom and Schneider have also moved ahead of the Scottish driver.

Classified:

Pos  Driver            Make       Time
 1.  Bernd Schneider   Mercedes   1h 05:10.090
 2.  Martin Tomczyk    Audi       +      0.543
 3.  Mattias Ekstrom   Audi       +      1.255
 4.  Mika Hakkinen     Mercedes   +      6.182
 5.  Bruno Spengler    Mercedes   +      6.477
 6.  Jamie Green       Mercedes   +     22.485
 7.  Alexandre Premat  Audi       +     26.825
 8.  Christian Abt     Audi       +     29.721
 9.  A.Margaritis      Mercedes   +     30.218
10.  Gary Paffett      Mercedes   +     32.953
11.  Lucas Luhr        Audi       +     33.514
12.  Mathias Lauda     Mercedes   +     1 Lap
13.  Timo Scheider     Audi       +     1 Lap
14.  M.Winkelhock      Audi       +     1 Lap
15.  Adam Carroll      Audi       +     1 Lap
16.  Susie Stoddart    Mercedes   +     1 Lap
17.  Daniel La Rosa    Mercedes   +     1 Lap
18.  Vanina Ickx       Audi       +     6 Laps

Not Classified:

     Driver            Make         Laps
     Paul Di Resta     Mercedes      0
     M.Rockenfeller    Audi          0

Fastest lap: Tomczyk, 43.520 on lap 41