Norisring race 1: Paffett fights back

From pole position Paffett made a sound start to lead into the first corner. However, by the time the cars had completed the first of the 35 laps he was back in third having lost out to both Auinger and Diefenbacher. This then became fourth as Sven Heidfeld muscled his way inside Paffett's Team Rosberg Dallara into the first corner hairpin.

Paffett reversed the order at the same place at the start of the next lap, but ahead of him Diefenbacher was compromising his race prospects by running into the back of the leader Auinger. This removed Diefenbacher's left front wing endplate and the upper element of the wing.

The damage caused the German to struggle with the handling of his car and by the end of lap six Paffett was right on his title rival's rear wing. The following lap the Brit was up to second after executing another trademark move into T1.

Auinger had built up a comfortable advantage following his brush with Diefenbacher, but Paffett produced a stunning lap of 49.5s - easily the fastest of the race - to significantly eat into the number one car's lead. This had the affect of panicking Auinger, who has never won a race at this level. Suddenly his lap times dropped by almost two seconds a lap and he started to lock his brakes where previously he had been smooth.

By the end of lap 10 Paffett was right under the rear wing of Auinger's Dallara-Opel and looking for a way by. It didn't come instantly as Auinger valiantly defended his line. However, at Paffett's favoured T1 on lap 13, he darted out from behind the Austrian to successfully complete a deft pass. A sequence of blistering laps quickly established a one-second lead, and briefly Diefenbacher was given hope of claiming second.

"It was really close I had to come off the brakes to go inside him," said Paffett. "After that the car was amazingly fast and I was able to pull away."

Eventually Auinger regained his rhythm and the gaps at the front began to stabilise. Behind them, fourth place was easily held by Heidfeld, aided by a first lap collision that accounted for a number of potential rivals.

Going into the tight first corner for the first time Norbert Siedler locked up and slid into Kousuke Matsuura. The Japanese driver was powerless to prevent his car from bouncing into Robert Doornbos path and all three were effectively out, as were Christopher Bruck and Gilles Tinguely who became entangled in the carnage from further back on the grid.

However, Heidfeld was kept honest throughout the race by Paffett's team-mate Kimmo Liimatainen, who was in turn fending off Markus Winkelhock. With just four laps to go, Liimatainen spun at the hairpin and almost hit Heidfeld and dropped back to ninth. Winkelhock took up the challenge and actually out-dragged his team-mate on lap 32, but overshot the first corner, which let the duelling pair of Jeffery van Hooydonk and Cesar Campanico through into fifth and sixth place respectively.

The result means that Paffett has stretched his championship advantage even further and another strong result in tomorrow's race will see him look very comfortable at the head of the standings.


Gary Paffett Team Rosberg 29m24.949s
Bernard Auinger Opel Team BSR +3.003s
Frank Diefenbacher Opel Team BSR +8.367s
Sven Heidfeld Mucke Motorsport +14.948s
Jeffery van Hooydonk Team Ghinzani +15.695s
Cesar Campanico PREMA Powerteam +16.263s