Paffett triumphs over Di Resta in Zandvoort DTM round

Last weekend saw another stunning round of the German touring car series (DTM) at the Dutch Zandvoort circuit, with Britain’s Gary Paffett finishing ahead of Paul Di Resta in the sister AMG Mercedes C-Class.

2010 is proving to be a close-fought championship year, with only 11 points separating the top 3 drivers – Spengler, Paffett and Di Resta – all of whom drive for AMG Mercedes. And what a great year 2010 has been for AMG Mercedes – winning 5 out of 6 races run thus far, with only 5 races remaining.

Paffett came home just 0.396sec ahead of Paul Di Resta, who were some 12 seconds ahead of the pursuing Audis of Timo Scheider and Mattias Ekström. Ralf Schumacher (Laureus AMG Mercedes C-Class) came home ninth ahead of Jamie Green (Junge Sterne AMG Mercedes C-Class), with David Coulthard (Laureus AMG Mercedes C-Class) finishing 12th ahead of Susie Stoddart (TV Spielfilm AMG Mercedes C-Class) in 15th.

Gary Paffett said after the race, “I just like this track. I got the maximum out of the car and driving here was great fun. I thank my team for a great job during the weekend. Like Bruno, I have won two races this year and I am ready to challenge him for the championship.”

Since the year 2000, Mercedes-Benz have now won 101 out of 185 races in this period, with Paffet’s win this weekend becoming the 157th DTM win out of 326 races for the brand since Mercedes-Benz entered the championship as a factory team in 1988.

Paul Di Resta who came second said, “A good race for me and for Mercedes-Benz. I came close to the lead, but could not manage to pass Gary. Well done to him on his race win. I scored eight points today and the fight for the championship is open again.”

Next round is at Brands Hatch in just 13 days time (3rd-5th September), so if you’d like to get up close and personal with the DTM series then call the MotorSport Vision ticket hotline on 0870 950 9000 or book online.