Paul di Resta wins at home at Brands Hatch

The championship fight between Paul di Resta and Gary Paffett (Mercedes) never ends DTM, with the success of the first mentioned ahead of the leader of the general classification, during the second race at Brands Hatch this Sunday.

Author of pole position, Paffett however saw di Resta steal the show between the Druids hairpin and the Graham Hill corner, in a first lap of the race which will see the intervention of the safety car, following an incident involving Robin Frijns (Audi), Lucas Auer (Mercedes) and Augusto Farfus (BMW).

Auer goes sideways off-line at the exit of turn 3, and takes Frijns who ends his race against the wall of tires. The former Blancpain GT Series champion will finally be able to leave, while Farfus has to deal with an M4 damaged at the front left with contact with one of the two cars that made the mistake. The Brazilian would later retire after his pit stop.

A racing event which sees Pascal Wehrlein (Mercedes), Marco Wittmann (BMW), Loïc duval (Audi), Bruno Spengler (BMW) and Nico Müller (Audi) took the opportunity to observe their pit stop at the end of the 5th lap.

Rast tried everything

At the restart a few moments later, Paul di Resta easily contained Gary Paffett. The two drivers remain in this order after the passages through the pitlane, observed at the end of the 8th lap for Paffett, and one lap later for the leader di Resta.

Only Jamie Green pushes his first stint beyond the 30th lap and cedes control of the event to the di Resta – Paffett tandem, soon joined by René Rast.

On cold tires, Green could not contain Pascal Wehrlein's attack for fourth place before resisting Marco Wittmann's attack too virilely, forcing the former champion to go onto the grass at the exit of the turn. #3. A maneuver which will earn the Audi driver a drive-through. 

Di Resta easily kept Paffett at bay, himself under pressure from René Rast, and pocketed a victory at home which allowed him to reduce the gap to 29 points in the championship against his compatriot.

Followed by Wehrlein, Wittmann, Mike Rockenfeller (Audi), Philipp Eng (BMW), Lucas Auer, Daniel Juncadella (Mercedes), winner in race 1 and Nico Müller. No success for Loïc Duval, victim of a left rear puncture less than 5 minutes from the finish.

Race 2 ranking

Discover the report of the Brands Hatch DTM event, in AUTO issue 2178hebdo, available tomorrow evening in digital version and this Thursday on newsstands.