Report and photos: Willem J. Staat
The DTM at the Norisring traditionally is the highlight at the DTM calender. This year the weather spoilt the event somewhat on Friday and Saturday, but the weather conditions on raceday were clean. 132.000 Germans saw one of the best DTM races ever when Briton Jamie Green with his 2008-spec. chassis took the lead in a heart beating battle at the penultimate lap.
A thrilling battle and well calculated stops had brought reigning champion Timo Scheider at the front, followed by Mercedes drivers Bruno Spengler and Jamie Green. In the closing stages Spengler managed to lead briefly, but it was Green who snatched the lead in classic outbraking move at the Grundigbend. Acclerating out of it Green stayed on throttle and Scheider surrendered. He even dropped back to 4th place.
For Mercedes Benz it was a perfect 1-2 weekend. The Stuttgart marque beating their opponents at home soil for the 7th time. Since 2003 Audi has not succeeded in winning there! On the final four laps the enthusiastic crowd counted three different leaders, Like they were racing at an oval. The leading bunch ran only 0.6 seconds apart. Can you imagine? Gary Paffett ended in 5th place, ahead of Ralf Schumacher who scored his best ever DTM result. For former Champcar driver Katherine Legge it was a somewhat difficult weekend as she qualified 5th but ended 12th after she stalled on the grid. Despite that mishaps she recorded the fastest lap, something with which Audi Motorsports Boss Dr. Ulrich was very pleased with afterwards.
On free practice a lid came off and it hit the rear of Markus Winkelhcok;s A4 at considerable speed. Winkelhock was uninjured but the qualification was being interrupted for several hours to check them and restore the damage. It was the only mishap during a fantastisc racing weekend. 132.000 spectators saw one of the best DTM races ever!
The F3 Euroseries races were being taken by Frenchman Jules Bianchi and Christian Vietoris.
