Nurburgring, 7 August, DTM round 7 (pdf)

1° Mattias Ekström Audi A4 DTM
2° Tom Kristensen (Audi Sport Team Abt) at 1"088
3° Gary Paffett AMG-Mercedes C-Klasse at 4"585
4° Mika Hakkinen AMG-Mercedes C-Klasse at 5"245
5° Bernd Schneider AMG-Mercedes C-Klasse at 10"527
6° Allan McNish Audi A4 DTM at 17"706
7° Jean Alesi AMG-Mercedes C-Klasse at 20"934
8° Jamie Green AMG-Mercedes C-Klasse at 24"652
9° Laurent Aiello Vectra GTS V8 at 27"758
10° Christian Abt Audi A4 DTM at 28"673

In typical "Eifel” weather with a mix of rain and sunshine, 112,000 spectators witnessed another thrilling DTM weekend. A heavy shower just before race start created extremely difficult conditions. In the wet starting phase, Mattias Ekström skilfully defended his third place against the vanguard chasing him and changed to wets just in time. With his second pit stop being timed just as perfectly, the Audi driver managed to reduce his 7.5-second gap to Gary Paffett to 2.6 seconds within just a few laps. When the Brit made a mistake, Ekström had pocketed his second victory of the season. Tom Kristensen, too, was able to overtake Paffett to claim second place after remarkably pushing forward from sixth place on the grid.

Martin Tomczyk was in the points as well but after his second tyre change, he drove across the white line at the pit lane exit, which earned him a drive-through penalty.

Yet again, the best driver of a car from last year was Christian Abt, who crossed the finish line in tenth place in the Audi A4 DTM entered by Audi Sport Team Joest. However - like his team-mates – Abt had lost his chance of scoring points as early as the start, conducted in flying style following a safety car lap.

Rinaldo Capello (Audi Sport Team Joest #18) 19th place, - 1 lap
"Alright, hindsight is 20/20 vision. But – let’s face it - the decision to start on slicks, which I had taken together with my engineer, might just as well have worked. Yet as early as on the formation lap I knew this wasn’t the case. When the track dried off, I was as quick as the top three. The set-up for dry conditions worked perfectly. That consoles me a little.”