Hockenheim: Diefenbacher doubles up

Diefenbacher made a fine start from pole, unlike fellow front row man Tony Schmidt, who stalled his GM Motorsport Dallara-Toyota on the startline, causing chaos behind him.

Diefenbacher led Stefan Mucke (Dallara-Opel), Toshihiro Kaneishi (BSR Dallara-Opel), Pierre Kaffer (Dallara-Opel) and yesterday's runner-up Paffett (Dallara-Renault). The race one winner immediately pulled out a substantial gap over his pursuers, unlike yesterday, when Paffett gave him a hard time for the first few laps.

Gary again looked strong, and was hassling Kaffer for fourth when he locked up and careered into the tyrewall at the Sachs Kurve.

"I just missed a gear on the downchange," he said. "What's really annoying is that it's going to take consistency to win this championship and I can't afford to throw good chances like that away. The race was going well again, and I felt I was just as quick as Diefenbacher, but I got stuck behind three cars and couldn't show it."

Front row man Schmidt was another to visit the Sachs Kurve tyrewall when he misjudged a passing move as he fought his way back through the pack.

Paffett's exit promoted Andrew Kirkaldy to eighth, and the underfunded Scot is increasingly confident of his chances to contest more races with Swiss Racing Team after Hockenheim. His strong run today made up for the disappointment of yesterday, when a broken front wing ruined his chances.

Diefenbacher won by 13.7secs, marking himself out as a hot favourite for the title.


1 Frank Diefenbacher, BSR Dallara F301-Opel, 31 laps
2 Stefan Mucke, ADDC Dallara F301-Toyota, +13.7s
3 Toshihiro Kaneishi, BSR Dallara F301-Opel, +14.6s
4 Pierre Kaffer, Team Kolles Dallara F301-Mugen, +15.0s
5 Joao Paulo de Oliviera, Swiss Tony Racing Team, Dallara F399-Opel, +15.9s
6 Markus Winkelhock, ADDC Dallara F300-Opel, +17.0s
7 Zsolt Baumgartner, Trella Dallara F301-Renault, +28.7s
8 Andrew Kirkaldy, Swiss Tony Racing Team Dallara F399-Opel, +29.4s
9 Kimmo Liimatainen, Team Kolles Dallara F399-Opel, +29.8s
10 Bjorn Wirdheim, Prema Dallara F301-Opel, +30.4s