DTM news
Schneider wins at the Nürburgring
27 July 2008 / Results / PhotosThat was the most thrilling DTM race of the year. The weather in the Eifel turned the seventh season round of the DTM at the Nürburgring into a turbulent tyre lottery. Outstanding man of the day was the eldest driver in the field, Bernd Schneider. The 44-year old DTM record champion used all his experience and after 156.047 kilometres, he drove his AMG Mercedes C-Class across the finish line as the delighted winner.
"A great race with a good ending for me. Tonight, one round is on me", the winner said. For Schneider, it was the 43rd DTM race win in his career. After a great recovery in the last couple of laps, his fellow Mercedes driver, Scotsman Paul di Resta, secured himself second place. The quadruple success for Mercedes-Benz was completed by British drivers Jamie Green and Gary Paffett, the latter being the best-placed driver with a year-old car in fourth place. Points' leader Timo Scheider became the best Audi driver of the day. He remains in the lead of the points' standings with a margin of four points over Green. DTM novice Ralf Schumacher scored his first championship point in a DTM race by finishing an excellent eighth.
The race started with a bang. Based on the internal weather forecast, all Audis started into the formation lap with rain tyres. The opposition from Mercedes-Benz was entirely on slicks. Initially, the actual weather situation didn't confirm the forecast and the Audi team management decided to call points' leader Scheider, Mattias Ekström and Markus Winkelhock into the pits at the end of the formation lap, have their tyres changed and have them starting from the pit lane. After a very good start from second on the grid, Audi driver Mike Rockenfeller overtook his fellow Audi driver Tom Kristensen from Denmark and took the lead. However, it soon became clear that the other Audi drivers with rain tyres didn't have a chance against the Mercedes-Benz drivers with slicks. After more stops from Audi, there were seven Mercedes-Benz on the first seven places on the second lap already. Over and over again, light drizzle made conditions at the track very difficult. There were fascinating door-to-door fights and overtaking manoeuvres throughout the 19 car strong field. Schneider benefited from an optimal pit stop strategy and took the lead during the pit stop on lap 21 from di Resta, who had been leading the field up to that time. Shortly before the end of the race, the rain became stronger. While a major part of the drivers changed tyres once again, Schneider completed the race with slicks. Di Resta had his tyres changed and benefited from this advantage in his recovery, overtaking Ekström, Paffett and Green. However, he couldn't catch Schneider and the 22-year old had to make do with second place. Reigning DTM champion Ekström lost his fifth place on the final lap to his team-mate Scheider. The Swede still scored three points for the championship by finishing sixth. He is now third behind Scheider and Green. Canadian Bruno Spengler (Mercedes-Benz) finished seventh. Ralf Schumacher scored his first point in the DTM in eighth place.
In the points' standings of the DTM, Scheider is leading with 44 points from Green (40) and Ekström (38). The eighth DTM round of the season will be taking place at Brands Hatch (GB) on August 31st.
Bernd Schneider (winner, Original-Teile AMG Mercedes): "A great race with a good ending for me. Thanks to my engineer who decided to let me start with slicks, although I actually wanted to have rain tyres on. My car was really great and two perfect pit stops of my mechanics allowed me to make up at least two places. Thanks guys, tonight, one round is on me."
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