He finally broke his duck in his 77th DTM race. German driver, Timo Scheider claimed his maiden DTM race win with his Audi A4 DTM. In the Motorsport Arena Oschersleben, the 29-year old was the first to cross the finish line after 44 laps with a margin of 1.452 seconds over his fellow Audi driver Martin Tomczyk. "This is so great. But it was about time", Scheider shouted over the radio while still in his car, overjoyed with victory.
After his second place at Hockenheim, the Audi driver has now taken over the lead in the championship standings with 18 points. Third place went to Canadian Bruno Spengler with the AMG Mercedes C-Class. A total of 64,000 spectators came to witness the race weekend in the Magdeburg region. Next to the DTM and its partner series, Formula 1 driver Sebastian Vettel also thrilled the fans with a few demonstration laps in his Toro-Rosso-Formula 1 car.
Following a jump start by Tom Kristensen (Audi), who was second on the grid and got a drive-through penalty as a result, Timo Scheider had a clear drive and led all the way from lights to flag, scoring a never challenged victory. Kristensen made it back into the midfield, but retired after a collision with Maro Engel (Mercedes-Benz). With seven laps to go, the safety car was deployed and led the field for four laps. Engel was still classified 18th, Kristensen was 19th.
Together with Spengler, the two Mercedes-Benz drivers, Paul di Resta (GB) and Jamie Green (GB) completed the Mercedes-Benz trio in third, fourth and fifth place. Markus Winkelhock (Audi) showed a good performance by finishing fifth with a year-old car. Reigning DTM champion, Mattias Ekström from Sweden, failed to improve himself from his grid position and finished eighth behind his fellow Audi driver Mike Rockenfeller. Thus, Ekström scored one point for the drivers' standings, in which he is third behind Scheider and Tomczyk.
DTM novice Ralf Schumacher (Mercedes-Benz) only just missed out on a points-scoring finish in tenth place. The 33-year old was only 1.891 seconds short of eighth place. Only Alexandre Prémat with Audi A4 DTM came even closer to the points by finishing ninth.
In the drivers' standings, Scheider is now leading with 18 points from Tomczyk (12) and Ekström (11). The third DTM round of the season will be taking place at Mugello in Italy in a fortnight (May 2nd - 4th).
Timo Scheider (winner, Audi Sport Team Abt): "This feeling is just incredible. Finally, the long years of waiting patiently have paid off. Thanks to my mechanics of the Team Abt. Thanks to Audi for giving me a sensational car, Thanks to Dr. Ullrich, who has seen that I am not the worst driver after all. It is strange that one always has to say thank you. But it was never more appropriate than today. This moment is very emotional. Now, I will do everything to be among the contenders for the title."
Mugello