Di Resta wins race 1 at Norisring
Paul di Resta scored a dominant victory at the Norisring on Saturday to extend his championship lead in the Formula 3 Euroseries
Di Resta headed an ASM 1-2 ahead of Sebastian Vettel for his third win of 2006, taking full advantage when pole sitter Giedo van der Garde in the third ASM car stalled at the start.
Di Resta eased out a comfortable lead over Jonathan Summerton (Mucke Motorsport) and stayed in control even after Vettel grabbed second with 10 laps remaining.
Di Resta, who now leads the series by 15 points from Vettel, said: "It's always difficult to win here, but I was able to relax and just kept an eye on the backmarkers."
Vettel also made a bad start, and was delayed further when he had to swerve past van der Garde's stricken car, dropping to fifth.
A great fight with Esteban Guerrieri (Manor Motorsport) ended when Vettel punted him into a spin under braking for the final corner. Amazingly, Guerrieri recovered from his 360-degree rotation without losing any more places, but would eventually drop to 10th after further contact with Romain Grosjean (Signature) later in the race.
Vettel passed teammate Kamui Kobayashi for third on lap 26, and then hunted down and passed Summerton for second on lap 37. Kobayashi lost fourth to fellow Japanese driver Kohei Hirate (Manor) in the closing stages.
Van der Garde put in a stunning recovery drive that saw him rise from last to sixth, while Buemi, who also stalled from fifth on the grid, rose to seventh.
Grosjean's late drive-through penalty for his collision with Guerrieri meant he had to surrender eighth place - and pole position for Sunday's reverse grid - to Prema Powerteam's Joao Urbano.
CLASSIFIED:
Pos Driver Team Time
1. Paul di Resta ASM Formule 3 40:09.638
2. Sebastian Vettel ASM Formule 3 + 2.001
3. Jonathan Summerton ASL Mucke Motorsport + 4.529
4. Kohei Hirate Manor Motorsport + 10.387
5. Kamui Kobayashi ASM Formule 3 + 10.942
6. Giedo van der Garde ASM Formule 3 + 15.789
7. Sébastien Buemi ASL Mücke Motorsport + 18.349
8. Joao Urbano Prema Powerteam + 30.608
9. Peter Elkmann Jo Zeller Racing + 31.048
10. Esteban Guerrieri Manor Motorsport + 33.689
11. Ronayne O´Mahony Prema Powerteam + 42.720
12. Romain Grosjean Signature-Plus + 47.732
13. Charlie Kimball Signature-Plus + 1 lap
14. Filip Salaquarda Team ISR + 1 lap
15. Natacha Gachnang Bordoli Motorsport + 2 laps
16. Dominik Schraml FS Motorsport + 2 laps
17. Gina-Maria Adenauer SMS Seyffarth Motorsport + 4 laps
18. Julian Theobald SMS Seyffarth Motorsport + 6 laps
19. Guillaume Moreau Signature-Plus + 10 laps
20. Tim Sandtler Signature-Plus + 11 laps
NOT CLASSIFIED/RETIREMENTS:
Driver Team On Lap
Kazuki Nakajima Manor Motorsport 32
Alejandro Nunez Prema Powerteam 26
Richard Antinucci HBR Motorsport 25
Michael Herck Bas Leinders JRT 7
Anthony Janiec Janiec Racing Team 0
Cemil Cipa HBR Motorsport 0
Fastest Lap: Sebastian Vettel, 49.421 on lap 32
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