Paul di Resta claims home win

Paul di Resta has won the British round of the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters at Brands Hatch. The Scot converted his pace throughout the weekend into a well deserved first victory of the 2009 season.

After qualifying on pole position di Resta fended off a light challenge by Timo Scheider into the first corner.

From that point he led the race, and despite seeing two late safety car periods cut his lead, he took the flag in front of a fanatical home crowd at Brands Hatch.

Scheider took second to secure a solid points advantage over main title rivals Gary Paffett and Mattias Ekström, who finished fourth and fifth respectively.

Fresh from his dominant weekend at the Nürburgring Martin Tomczyk claimed the final podium place ahead of Paffett.

Paffett enjoyed great pace early on, but found passing difficult on the short Brands hatch Indy circuit.

Ekström drove a fairly solitary race with few incidents. The double DTM champion started the race from 7th.

Tom Kristensen has started third, but seemed to be holding almost everyone up as the pace he exhibited in qualifying seemed to have deserted the Dane on race day.

After losing position to Bruno Spengler early on, he briefly fended off challenges from Martin Tomczyk and Gary Paffett. He was unable to resist for long, and the pair eased past.

Paffett’s pass was one of the moves of the day. The Brit used a very tight line out of Druids, which included using the grass, to move past a resilient Kristensen.

Alexandre Prémat’s poor season continued when he was adjudged to have jumped the start from 15th on the grid. The Frenchman was issued with a drive through penalty, which pushed him down the order. He eventually finished 11th, which is his best result to-date in the 2009 season.

Ralf Schumacher started the race in 11th, but managed to work his way up to 9th. The strong result will be more satisfying for Schumacher, after he had to fight back through the order after being issued with a drive through penalty, after he sped in the pit lane during his first mandatory stop.

Jamie Green tipped fellow Brit Oliver Jarvis into a spin midway through the race. Green tagged the back of Jarvis’ car as the pair entered Clearways. Jarvis managed to keep the car from beaching in the gravel and rejoined. Green was penalised with a drive through penalty.

With much of the race run without major incident, two cropped up in the last period of the race.

Mathias Lauda suffered a heavy accident when his Mercedes speared off the track at Paddock Hill bend. He thankfully walked away from the incident, but a safety car was deployed when the marshals moved his stricken stern AMG Mercedes C-Klasse.

This caused Paul di Resta’s lead to vanish, and placed pressure on his shoulders for the restart. This pressure did not show, and he managed the restart perfectly crossing the line some 1.2 seconds ahead of Timo Scheider.

The relief was short lived as a second safety car intervention followed. Tom Kristensen left the track exiting Clearways, his Audi hit the wall hard, but again the driver walked away.

At Druids, Markus Winkelhock got sideways and was hit by Schumacher. Maro Engel also got involved in the accident.

At the restart Paul di Resta had an effective safeguard. Katherine Legge was running between him and Scheider, and knowing that she was a lapped car, he was fully aware she couldn’t challenge him up to the line.

He again negotiated the restart well and, in what was a 2-lap dash to the line, he drove smoothly to claim a well deserved victory.

Timo Scheider leaves Britain with a 5-point advantage over Mattias Ekström in the title race. Scheider sits atop the standings on 43, followed by Ekström on 38, Paffett on 34, with di Resta and Spengler tied on 29.

The next round of the DTM will be held at Circuit de Catalunya in Spain, with racing on the 20th September.