The 2009 story in pictures

The 2009 installment of the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters was hard fought and intense right to the end. For much of the season, two former champions in Gary Paffett and Mattias Ekström were locked in a battle with reigning series champion, Timo Scheider. The eventual champion would not be decided until the final race of the season at Hockenheim. TouringCarTimes presents you with a visual recap of the season as it happened.

Audi’s Timo Scheider began the season as the reigning DTM champion. Having beaten Paul di Resta to the title by 4-points in 2008, the German was looking to successfully defend his crown this season.

Prior to the start of the season, Tom Kristensen announced that the season would be his last in the DTM.

The Dane made his debut in 2004, and has always proven himself to be fast in the series, having claimed seven pole positions, three race wins and sixteen podium places up to the start of the 2009 season.

On track, Audi’s season began in fine form with Kristensen himself leading home an impressive Audi 1-2-3-4 finish at Hockenheim. It could have been better still, but for Mattias Ekström suffering a puncture late on, forcing him down to seventh at the flag.

After disappointment at Hockenheim, Gary Paffett struck back with a solid victory at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz. The race win was made possible thanks to some fine tactical decisions by his team, who timed his two pit-stops to perfection to allow him clear space on track, and a clean visit to the pit lane.

Briton Jamie Green took the chequered flag at the Norisring in his 2008 specification Mercedes C-Klasse. Ekström again took the third step of the podium, as he moved to make up for the poor luck in the season opener.

Green’s win was far from clear cut, and the race went down to the line. With four laps to go Scheider, Green and Spengler enjoyed an intense battle for the lead, which saw all three occupying the position at some point in the closing period of the race.

The final results of the season’s first fly away race at Zandvoort were suspended for a number of weeks when investigations into team orders were conducted. The DTM outlaws any form of team orders, and some of the Audi related overtaking during the race gave the DMSB cause for concern.

Gary Paffett won the race, ahead of fellow Brit Oliver Jarvis, but it was the Audi’s who would come under scrutiny after the race.

The outcome of the investigation was that Ekström has been allowed to pass Jarvis and Alexandre Prémat too easily, and as team orders are strictly banned, he was issues with a time penalty dropping him from second to third in the standings.

Four other Audi’s were also disqualified from the result, but for different reasons. Markus Winkelhock’s car had to little fuel in the tank after the race, Christian Bakkerud didn’t attend the post-race weigh bridge check, where as Prémat and Scheider were too late for the same check.

After Zandvoort, Paffett had a 4-point lead over Ekström in the championship standings. Paffett sat atop on 24, with Ekström on 20, and Scheider trailing the pairing on 17.

Timo Scheider waited until the series visited Oschersleben to take his first race win of 2009. He was followed across the line by fellow Audi drivers Ekström and Tomczyk, giving the marque a 1-2-3 finish.

Scheider’s first victory of the campaign had extra significance for Audi, as they claimed their 50th DTM victory.

Audi continued their impressive Oschersleben form as the series visited the Nürburgring. Martin Tomczyk claimed his fourth ever DTM victory, as he was followed home by three other Audi drivers. Scheider claimed second, with Ekström third and Winkelhock again showing impressive speed in his year old car in fourth.

With only four races to go, the championship battle was hotting up. After the Nürburgring result, Time Scheider led the championship with 35-points, Ekström was a point behind on 34, with Gary Paffett lying third on 29-points.

Paul di Resta dominated his home race at Brands Hatch in the United Kingdom. Having showed well in practice, he duly converted that into pole position, and then went on to claim the race victory, his first of the season. From a championship point of view Timo Scheider did what he could, and took second place, with Paffett fourth and Ekström fifth.

The Brands Hatch victory for Mercedes was also their 150th victory in the DTM, a notable achievement, and one which was celebrated accordingly.

The Circuit de Catalunya in Spain was the destination for the 8th round of the season, and Audi took the opportunity to again showcase their phenomenal performance in 2009 with yet another clean sweep of the podium places. Timo Scheider took the flag, with Tom Kristensen and Martin Tomczyk taking second and third respectively. Gary Paffett’s championship hopes took a nosedive as he could only manage fourth, whereas Ekström’s was dented further with a relatively lowly sixth place finish.

In October the Dijon-Prenois circuit hosted it’s first ever DTM race, and what was the penultimate race of the 2009 championship. The race was won by Gary Paffett, who had to do nothing less than claim victory as his championship hopes were hanging by a thread. His rival Scheider started from 16th, but made up many positions through the race to finish a fine 6th and add some points to his tally.

As the teams headed to Hockenheim for the final round of the season, Timo Scheider held a seven point advantage over Gary Paffett, and both drivers were aiming to end the season as the series champion. Paffett would have to take risks and realistically nothing short of a race victory would be enough.

At Hockenheim, Paffett duly delivered that race victory, but it was to no avail. Timo Scheider crossed the line right behind him, to take the championship title by 64-points to 59. In doing so Scheider became the first back-to-back DTM champion since Bernd Schneider in 2000 and 2001.

Speaking after the race, an understandably ecstatic Scheider had this to say, “This is a moment in my life that I can only hardly describe. I owe all this to my team, to Audi and especially to my family, and that makes me really proud”.

Scheider also took time out to acknowledge the battle he had with Paffett through the season. “Gary was a hard, but fair rival and would have deserved the title, too”, said Scheider.