Paffett Wins DTM Race at Zandvoort, 4 Audi Drivers Excluded

Zandvoort podium

Gary Paffett seems to make the most of driving a 2009-spec machinery inside the DTM, after two years of driving one-year old AMG Mercedes C-Klasses for the German marque's secondary teams. Being promoted to works driver this year, the 28-year old Brit scored his second win of the season at Zandvoort, after facing little competition from his opponents.

Oliver Jarvis, who became the first driver in DTM history to score a pole position while driving a one-year old car, soon lost the leading spot after hitting the grass on Lap 14. It was the perfect opportunity for Paffett to grab the lead without even moving a finger, as he soon drove away from Jarvis to secure a decent advantage until the first pit stop.

Swedish driver Mattias Ekstrom managed to recover well in the early stages of the race, after previously qualifying in 9th place. He did, however, benefit from more than obvious help from some of his temmates, the first of whom was Martin Tomczyk. The German driver slowed down in order to give Ekstrom the edge, and the Swede was already in 5th place when coming out of his first pit stop.

In the closing stages of the race, he also faced little opposition from Alexandre Premat and Jarvis and powered to 2nd place overall. As for the 1st place, there was nothing anyone could do on Sunday, as Paffett raced in a league of his own and, thanks to his 10 points in the Netherlands, grabbed the championship lead also.

Audi's tactics was investigated by the DMSB (German motor sport authority) soon after the race, as team orders are officially banned in the DTM. No decision has yet been announced by the German officials.

Four drivers were, however, heavily penalized by the DTM after the Zandvoort race, as they were discovered with infringements on the technical rule book. Alexandre Premat and Timo Scheider were excluded because they showed up late to the official weighting of their race cars, while Markus Winkelhock did not have at least one kg of fuel in his tank at the end of the race (as required by the DTM).

Furthermore, Kolles driver Christian Bakkerud did not show up at the official weighting at all, which enabled another exclusion after the Sunday race. Under the circumstances, Tomczyk, Bruno Spengler, Paul di Resta, Maro Engel and Tom Kristensen completed the Top 8 at Zandvoort.