Gary Paffett Wins at Dijon, Keeps Title Fight Alive

Gary Paffett wins 3rd race of the season, at Dijon

The last race of the season will be competed with the trophy up for grabs, as Mercedes' Gary Paffett's win at Dijon-Prenois kept the title fight alive in the 2009 DTM season. In a race dominated by tire punctures – the majority of them suffered by Audi drivers – the British driver kept his cool and took good care of his tires in the closing stages of the event to grab the inaugural chequered flag at Dijon.

The Mercedes driver was joined by Audi's Mattias Ekstrom in front of the field in the first part of the race, as the duo quickly cleared off thanks to Bruno Spengler holding off the rest of the drivers. The Canadian had a slow start but was tough to overtake during his first stint, giving the leading drivers enough cushion for their first pit stop.

In the meantime, however, championship leader Timo Scheider suffered a puncture on Lap 22 – happily for him, it happened right before he had to pit for new tires and refuel – and traveled to the pits earlier than initially scheduled.

During the second stint, another 3 Audi drivers would suffer some punctures of their own, including Oliver Jarvis, Tom Kristensen and Ekstrom himself.

That left Paffett all alone on top of the field following his second pit stop, with teammate Paul di Resta in the runner-up position. Both drivers decided to take a more defensive approach towards the end of the race – probably after hearing about their rivals' tire issues – and Di Resta had to settle for 2nd place at the finish line.

Mercedes eventually grabbed the 1-2-3 in France, after Spengler recovered his pace well in the final stint and came approximately two tenths of a second behind Di Resta. Jamie Green and Ralf Schumacher completed Mercedes' magical Top 5 at Dijon, as championship leader Timo Scheider had to settle for 6th place.

Martin Tomczyk finished the race in 7th place, while the last point-scoring position belonged to lucky driver Mathias Lauda. Although he was nowhere to be seen inside the Top 8 until the final lap, Lauda benefited from a contact between Alexandre Premat and Maro Engel which not only saw both drivers running wide, but also Audi's Ekstrom.

In the overall classification, Scheider now leads from Paffett by only 7 points, with one race to go. The two drivers are the only one still in contention for the DTM title, as Ekstrom's 9th place threw him out of the title fight for the Hockenheim finale.