Audi wins at Brands Hatch and extends DTM lead
Source: Audi
Sep 1, 2008 - 9:20:31 AM
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Ingolstadt/Brands Hatch – At the eighth DTM round at Brands Hatch, Audi
celebrated their fourth win of the 2008 season. In unstable weather conditions
Timo Scheider defended an extremely narrow lead against Mercedes driver Paul di
Resta on the British circuit. In front of 26,800 spectators (throughout the
weekend) Timo Scheider thus extended his leadership of the standings to nine
points. Mattias Ekström shone with a brilliant recovery from seventh to third
place.
Thanks to a strong performance by the whole team Audi claimed
victory at Brands Hatch and, after a fierce fight, clinched another podium
position that was not necessarily to be expected. Thanks to an excellent job
done by his Audi Team Abt Sportsline pit crew Timo Scheider converted his fourth
pole position of the year into a flawless start-finish victory. Even when
drizzling rain set in the German at the wheel of his Audi A4 DTM demonstrated
his driving skills on slicks and remained in front after both pit stops.
During the overtaking manoeuvres – the front runners lapped the
backmarkers on the 1.929-kilometre short circuit twice – Mercedes-Pilot Paul di
Resta on several occasions came within just a few tenths of the race leader.
Timo Scheider kept cool even in those situations and, in the end, won with a
0.793-second lead. In addition to the best time in qualifying and his second win
of the season, the 29-year-old Audi factory driver set the fastest race lap as
well. He is now heading the standings nine points ahead of Jamie Green. This
gives Scheider the biggest advantage so far since taking the lead at the second
DTM round at Oschersleben in April.
Last year’s champion Mattias Ekström
completed the current DTM leader’s success with an equally remarkable
performance. After having started only from seventh place on the grid after a
defect in qualifying, Ekström tackled his 80th DTM race with a different
strategy than his team-mates. Using clever tactics, his team delayed the two
mandatory pit stops. When the Swede pitted for the second time on lap 59 his
crew even managed to perform the quickest stop of all teams. This enabled
Ekström, who had previously led the race, to get into third place after going
out again. With his fourth podium position in the current season, with three
more races to go, Ekström maintains his position on the heels of his immediate
rivals in the standings, Jamie Green and Paul di Resta, who – respectively –
have only a one-point advantage. Ekström is one of just two drivers who have
scored points at each race this year.
Martin Tomczyk was the third Audi
driver to manage the leap into the top five. He entertained the British fans
with spectacular duels and defeated the DTM runner-up, Bruno Spengler, who had
to settle for position six in the final result. Tom Kristensen – in seventh
place – completed the quartet of the new Audi A4 DTM cars finishing in the
points.
The Frenchman Alexandre Prémat was the fifth Audi driver to
clinch a result among the top ten. He was followed by his brand colleagues
Markus Winkelhock, Oliver Jarvis, Mike Rockenfeller and Christijan Albers.
Exactly ten points separate the top four drivers before the race at
Barcelona. The first of the three last rounds of the season will be staged three
weeks from now at the Circuit de Catalunya on 21 September.
The results at Brands Hatch
1 Timo Scheider (GW:plus/Top Service
Audi A4 DTM) 82 laps in 1h 00m25.549s
2 Paul di Resta (Mercedes) + 0.793s
3 Mattias Ekström (Red Bull Audi A4 DTM) + 4.077s
4 Jamie Green
(Mercedes) + 13.879s
5 Martin Tomczyk (Red Bull Audi A4 DTM) + 25.617s
6
Bruno Spengler (Mercedes) + 37.762s
7 Tom Kristensen (Audi A4 DTM) + 37.901s
8 Gary Paffett (Mercedes) - 1 lap
9 Bernd Schneider (Mercedes) - 1 lap
10 Alexandre Prémat (Audi Bank/Shell Helix Audi A4 DTM) - 1 lap
11
Markus Winkelhock (Playboy Audi A4 DTM) - 1 lap
12 Oliver Jarvis (Best
Buddies Audi A4 DTM) - 1 lap
13 Mike Rockenfeller (S line Audi A4 DTM) - 1
lap
14 Christijan Albers (Audi A4 DTM) - 1 lap
15 Ralf Schumacher
(Mercedes) - 1 lap
16 Mathias Lauda (Mercedes) - 1 lap
17 Maro Engel
(Mercedes) - 1 lap
18 Katherine Legge (Audi A4 DTM) - 2 laps
19 Susie
Stoddart (Mercedes) - 2 laps
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