Jul 27, 2008
With a fifth-place finish Audi driver Timo Scheider defended his overall lead in the DTM. However, a tyre choice that failed to work out deprived Audi of a possible fourth victory of the season in the Eifel.
As is often the case at the Nürburgring, the weather played a crucial part. Shortly before race start a thunderstorm with dark rain clouds was coming up. Since the meteorologists contracted by Audi, who are normally right on the mark, predicted rain – said to last for at least 30 minutes – for the beginning of the race, most of the Audi A4 DTM cars started to the formation lap on rain tyres.
However, instead of a shower there were only a few drops of rain. Mattias Ekström, Timo Scheider and Markus Winkelhock got a call by their teams to swith to slicks immediately as early as during the formation lap. They started from the pit lane thus containing the damage. The other Audi drivers pitted during the first few laps to switch to slicks as well and hopelessly lost ground.
Mattias Ekström and Timo Scheider thrilled the spectators (85,000 throughout the weekend) with strong recoveries, which ultimately resulted in places five and six and thus valuable championship points.
Mattias Ekström was running in front of his team-mate Timo Scheider by a narrow margin for almost the whole race. This duel was ultimately decided by a tyre gamble: When rain did set in during the final phase Scheider switched to wets five laps before race end. On the last lap he managed to overtake Ekström and on the finish straight almost outperformed Mercedes driver Gary Paffett too with whom Scheider and Ekström had previously fought a tough duel.
Martin Tomczyk drove the fastest race lap by far, but retired due to a defect of the right rear suspension. Tom Kristensen, who had started from the pole position and was a victim of the unfortunate tyre choice as well, slid into the gravel trap shortly after his second mandatory pit stop.
The best driver of an A4 from last year was Markus Winkelhock, who – in ninth place – barely missed scoring a further point. His team-mate Mike Rockenfeller was able to enjoy leading the race after the start for only a short period of time: Running on rain tyres, ‘Rocky’ dropped to the rear of the field as early as on the first lap.
In eleventh place, Christijan Albers in the two-year-old Audi A4 DTM achieved his best result of the season. Oliver Jarvis, Alexandre Prémat and Mike Rockenfeller occupied places 13, 14 and 15. Katherine Legge retired due to a collision with the Mercedes of Maro Engel.
Before the last four races of the season, Timo Scheider leads the standings with a four-point advantage over Jamie Green (Mercedes). Title defender Mattias Ekström is lying in wait with two points behind him in third place overall. The next race will be held at Brands Hatch (Great Britain) on 31 August.
The results at the Nürburgring
1 Bernd Schneider (Mercedes) 43 laps in 1h 04m33.024s
2 Paul di Resta (Mercedes) + 5.764s
3 Jamie Green (Mercedes) + 13.069s
4 Gary Paffett (Mercedes) + 19.416s
5 Timo Scheider (GW:plus/Top Service Audi A4 DTM) + 19.582s
6 Mattias Ekström (Red Bull Audi A4 DTM) + 21.074s
7 Bruno Spengler (Mercedes) + 37.484s
8 Ralf Schumacher (Mercedes) + 45.630s
9 Markus Winkelhock (Playboy Audi A4 DTM) + 59.601s
10 Mathias Lauda (Mercedes) + 1m 00.671s
11 Christijan Albers (Audi A4 DTM) + 1m 06.751s
12 Susie Stoddart (Mercedes) + 1m 07.939s
13 Oliver Jarvis (Best Buddies Audi A4 DTM) + 1m 11.250s
14 Alexandre Prémat (Audi Bank/Shell Helix Audi A4 DTM) - 1 lap
15 Mike Rockenfeller (S line Audi A4 DTM) - 1 lap
Not classified:
Martin Tomczyk (Red Bull Audi A4 DTM) - 14 laps (suspension)
Tom Kristensen (Audi A4 DTM) - 16 laps (spin)
Katherine Legge (Audi A4 DTM) - 18 Rd. (accident)
Maro Engel (Mercedes) - 18 laps
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