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Gary Paffett Takes Dominant Mercedes Win at Hockenheim

His lack of testing prior to the start of the season did not keep British driver Gary Paffett from winning the opening DTM round of 2010, at Hockenheim, where he led a quad of Mercedes to a dominant victory.

Audi's Martin Tomczyk was the first one to emerge as leader of the race on Sunday, but a tire puncture on Lap 11 ended his hopes of a race win. His car's left-rear tire failed at the very start of the eleventh lap and led to a spectacular spin, giving second placed Gary Paffett the lead for the first time in the race.

From that point on, the 2005 DTM champion had no problem taking care of that lead, especially with Audi's Mattias Ekstrom making an unbelievable mistake on his first pit stop. The Swede was called to the pits one lap before the pit window was open, therefore enforcing a drive-through penalty late in the race.

Ekstrom's mistake meant good news for Persson's Jamie Green, who emerged as 2nd place contender on his one-year old Mercedes C-Klasse. He was unable to keep the pace with 3rd place running Bruno Spengler however, as the Canadian driver soon passed Green for the runner-up spot on Lap 32.

In the late stages of the race, Paffett decided to slow down in order to conserve his tires, so the gap between him and the following pack of Mercedes car decreased considerably. In the end, that helped Paul di Resta come only half of second behind Green in 4th place, while the other Audis also crossed the finish line closer to the leading cars.

Eventually, the Scot had to settle for 4th place, ahead of Audi duo Mike Rockenfeller and Mattias Ekstrom. More than 10 seconds behind the two Audis, reigning champion Timo Scheider came in 7th place, while followed by rookie driver Miguel Molina.

David Coulthard, making his first ever appearance in the DTM series, managed a 12th spot at the end, more than 35 seconds off the leaders' pace.
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