Gary Paffett happy to leave Brands Hatch with extended lead

Gary Paffett has extended his lead in the DTM drivers’ championship to 29 points over Paul di Resta, as the two British HWA Mercedes-AMG drivers begin to pull away in the championship after the sixth round of the season.

The 2005 champion had a strong race on Saturday, racing from sixth on the grid to sixth at the finish in a slightly damaged C63 DTM after a minor off in qualifying.

The 37-year-old bounced back on Sunday to swoop to pole position, the only driver under 1:18 all weekend, but fell behind team-mate Paul di Resta at the start and followed him through the race to finish, also not aided by a slow pit stop.

“I’m very happy with the whole weekend,” said Paffett. “It’s a weekend that could have gone very wrong. It’s a circuit we’ve not been to in DTM before, and one where you can very easily make mistakes like I did in qualifying yesterday.

“Luckily we were able to recover and get good points yesterday which was important as that made the difference between me and Paul.

“I’m not overjoyed with not winning the race today, but he made the better start and we all know how hard it is to overtake around here.

“The grid is all at an angle and it’s not very easy to get a perfect start. I did a practice start earlier on and got some wheelspin, so I was probably a bit too cautious at the (actual race) start.”

“I put as much pressure as I could on him for the whole race…but he didn’t make a mistake, so well done to Paul, but the good news is I’ve come away from here with a bigger lead than when I came in.”