Paffett Wins First DTM Race in 2 Years, at Lausitz

Gary Paffett's incredible bad luck during the season opener at Hockenheim turned into great strategy at Lausitz, as the Briton powered to his first DTM win in almost 2 years. While thanking his team for the pit stop strategy during the Sunday race, the Mercedes works driver also proved great under pressure, as he held his nerve ahead of teammate Bruno Spengler in the late stages of the race to eventually clinch the win.

The British driver did not make a great start into the race, as he dropped from 2nd place to 6th in the race after a few laps. He then decided to take on a late-stop strategy and, while most of the frontrunners started pitting early on, he only visited the Mercedes garage on Lap 25.

During that time, he made perfect use of his lighter car (low-fueled) and started making up for the lost positions in the first part of the race. When he eventually pitted for new tires and fuel, Paffett rejoined the track as the new leader.

Spengler did the very same thing later in the race, as he proceeded to a longer second stint in order to move up the pack. His late second pit stop got him almost 3 seconds behind Paffett with a few laps to go. From that point on, the Canadian driver tried to reduce that time deficit to his teammate, managing to cut it to lass than half of second in the dying laps.

Although he put constant pressure on Paffett, the Briton did not let go of the lead and managed to stay in front, leading Mercedes' first 1-2 this season. Following a dominating Audi weekend at Hockenheim, the Stuttgart-based company answered immediately, although the last step of the podium was, however, taken by an Audi works driver, Mattias Ekstrom.

Paul di Resta, Timo Scheider, Jamie Green, Mike Rockenfeller and Maro Engel completed the Top 8 at Lausitzring.

In the overall classification, Timo Scheider is leading from teammate Tom Kristensen by a 2-point margin, while Sunday's winner Gary Paffett is third, equal-pointed with the Danish driver.