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DTM 2008 - Ekstrom wins rain lottery at Le Mans

By Nancy Knapp Schilke - Motorsport.com

Mattias Ekstrom and his Audi Abt Sportsline crew won what truly was a rain lottery today on the Le Mans Bugatti circuit. The one major variable in the German Touring Car Masters series (DTM) race in France was the ever changing rain in the area -- from light showers to driving rain -- adding to the usual action in the German series.

Ekstrom inherited the lead when Audi factory teammate and points leader Timo Scheider dived into the pits on lap 11 and remained on slicks. Soon the track was starting to form rivers along the circuit and the usual mandatory two pit stops became four or more.

Even with a case of the flu, the Swede was able to take his third race win this season by over four seconds to second place Paul di Resta from the Mercedes camp.

"This wasn't bad for a sick racer. After I was frustrated with a bout of flu all weekend I'm now totally happy about victory," said Ekstrom. "The race was great and my Audi A4 was running perfectly from the start to the final lap. I couldn't wish for more than this except, of course, that I would have liked still being in the race for the title. The decision has been postponed to the finale. There, we'll be giving everything to clinch the title with Timo for Audi."

While Ekstrom celebrated his 13th career victory, di Resta was also pumped about his podium finish. Placing his AMG Mercedes second in the penultimate round forces the championship battle to the season finale in Hockenheim on October 26th.

"It was not the right decision to start with rain tyres, but in conditions like today, it is difficult to make the right choice," di Resta said. "It's super that I finished second despite my extra pit stop and that I am only two points behind Timo Scheider -- we knew that it would rain in the final third and my team had the perfect timing for the change; that was crucial. My speed was good despite the handicap weight which we now got rid of for the final race.

"I look forward to Hockenheim and I want to win in the great finale and thus clinch the championship title," he added.

Frenchman Alexandre Premat for Audi Sport Team Phoenix ended third in the 2007-spec on his home turf. He was one of only four drivers who did just the required pit stops and ran the entire race on slicks.

"A fantastic weekend! Standing on the podium at my home race makes me very proud," smiled Premat. "My team and I gave everything in qualifying and the race and were rewarded by third place. My team did everything right in terms of strategy so that I was able to attack at any time during the race."

Scheider finished sixth and holds a two point lead over di Resta. The German now needs to stay in front of the Scotsman in the DTM finale. "It was the right decision to go into the race with slicks. Advancing from fifth to first is definitely something special. Unfortunately, we timed our second stop two laps too early, that's too bad. We'll chalk this up to experience now and concentrate on the finale," he said.

Race results 

Standings after Le Mans 

See DTM race videos at Power Sport 

DTM - Paul di Resta keeps up title chase with Catalunya win

By Tom Haapanen - Motorsport.com

Paul di Resta needed a victory to keep his DTM (Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters) championship hopes alive, and it's the first-place trophy that he will be taking home from today's race at the Circuit de Catalunya, near Barcelona.

Paul di Resta, Team HWA AMG Mercedes, AMG Mercedes C-Klasse. Photo by xpb.cc.

"I probably had the fastest car in the field," di Resta reflected. "It was (part of) my goal to avoid too many risks as I didn't want to drop back in the points' standings."

di Resta started his Mercedes C-class from the second row, behind teammate Bernd Schneider and the championship leader, Audi's Scheider. The two title chase rivals took the lead from the start, dropping Schneider to third before the first corner, and the fight was on from there.

"Unfortunately, I had wheelspin at the start," Schneider rued his start. "I really had to battle for third place in the first corner."

In the lead, Scheider made his Audi A4 look as wide as the rules would allow, and while di Resta could hound him, he was unable to make his way past. Through the first pit stops, the gap never grew to a full second.

"I was having a great fight with Timo (Scheider)," di Resta recounted. "At some parts of the circuit, he was faster, but at other parts, I was. The overtaking manoeuvre was absolutely clean and Timo played along perfectly. I knew that I would have to be very close to him all the time in order to being able to start an attack at all."

With Mattias Ekstrom choosing a different strategy, he took the lead after the the leaders made their first stops on lap 15, with Scheider and di Resta slotting in behind him. On the second stint, though, di Resta had the measure of Scheider, the young Scot making his move stick with a pass into the La Caixa turn at the end of the back straightaway.

And that was it for Scheider: the German could do nothing but watch di Resta's taillights disappear into the distance, as his rival stretched out his lead, eventually getting the gap up to about five seconds, and 4.531 seconds at the finish.

"I am not at all disappointed with second place," said the Scheider after his second-place finish. "My start was good and I was able to overtake Schneider before the first corner. After that, di Resta put me under quite some pressure. He was a little bit faster and made good use of a slight gap. Being on the podium today was our goal!"

	Start: Timo Scheider, Audi Sport Team Abt, Audi A4 DTM and Paul di Resta, Team HWA AMG Mercedes, AMG Mercedes C-Klasse battle for the lead. Photo by xpb.cc.

The gap between Scheider and di Resta shrank down by two points with today's race, and there are now seven points separating the two, with two races remaining. Scheider needs a second and a third place to guarantee the championship, were di Resta to win the last two remaining races -- a tough task in itself, with DTM adding another 5 kg of weight to the winning car after each race.

Meanwhile, Paul Green and Stefan Ekstrom are now effective out of the hunt; the two tangled hard and repeatedly on the final lap in their struggle for fifth place, and the end result was that Ekstrom received a 50-second penalty in lieu of a drive-through one.

After Audi protested the penalty, the stewards upped it to a disqualification, and assigned a 30-second penalty to Green as well, dropping him to eighth place. Green and Ekstrom are now 16 and 18 points behind Scheider, a daunting task given the German's consistency in scoring points this season.

Outside the championship fight, Schneider drove a steady, quiet race to finish third, moving up the field toward the end of the race. 7.2 seconds separated Scheider and Schneider at the finish.

"I couldn't really keep up with di Resta and Scheider out in front," the Mecedes-Benz veteran admitted. "I had hoped to be able to fight with Timo for second place. But unfortunately, we had a slight problem during the pit stop which cost us some time. After that, I could work with my tyres quite well and I was running pretty much on my own. For a man of my age, it is quite comfortable not having somebody right behind me all the time."

Bernd Schneider, Team HWA AMG Mercedes, AMG Mercedes C-Klasse. Photo by xpb.cc. Results Standings after Catalunya

Martin Tomczyk took fourth for Audi, 4.2 seconds adrift of Schneider, followed by the 2007-spec Audis of Mike Rockenfeller and Alexandre Premat.

After Tom Kristensen's grid penalty and Ralf Schumacher's fines for pit lane violations in qualifying, the stewards were kept busy in the race as well. Apart from Ekstrom's and Green's last-lap antics, Susie Stoddart, Katherine Legge and Oliver Jarvis were all penalized. Gary Paffett, who finished 11th, raced under appeal after being initially excluded for a parc ferme violation.