Lausitz DTM: Paffett leads Wittmann in Race 2
Gary Paffett took his second victory of the 2018 DTM season by triumphing in Race 2 at Lausitzring, closely followed by BMW ace Marco Wittmann.
Gary Paffett Mercedes-AMG Team HWA, Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM
Alexander Trienitz
Starting from third on the grid, Paffett passed teammate Pascal Wehrlein, making the most of a botched move by the German on pole-sitter Phillip Eng.
By Lap 4 of 33, Paffett was into the lead as rookie Eng's race pace didn’t match his brilliant morning qualifying time and he soon fell behind Wehrlein and Wittmann as well.
Paffett's early-pitting strategy looked to be the right choice after all the stops panned out, with Wittmann passing Wehrlein.
With three minutes remaining, Wittmann closed the gap down to 1.5s but Paffett responded to the charge and the Briton took the chequered flag first to score his second win of the season.
Wittmann achieved his best result of the season so far with second, driving away from Wehrlein with relative ease after the stops.
Paul di Resta completed an impressive recovery drive from 15th on the grid to finish fourth as he made the most of an early-stopping strategy.
After a later pitstop than most, Glock fought his way through the top 10, passing the likes of Eng, Jamie Green, Mike Rockenfeller and Joel Eriksson to finish fifth and keep his points lead over Paffett.
Green, 16th on the grid, pitted on the first lap and made his tyres last for the entire race to salvage sixth thanks to a last-lap move on Eng.
Eng had to settle for seventh with Mike Rockenfeller and Robin Frijns making it three Audis in the top 10 in eighth and 10th respectively, sandwiching Joel Eriksson.
Eriksson was under massive pressure from Edoardo Mortara during the race, the Italian twice having to hand back spots to the BMW rookie for pushing him off the track at Turn 1.
Mortara eventually finished 11th.
Race 2 results
Cla | Driver | Car | Gap |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Gary Paffett | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | |
2 | Marco Wittmann | BMW M4 DTM | 1.427 |
3 | Pascal Wehrlein | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 8.602 |
4 | Paul di Resta | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 17.891 |
5 | Timo Glock | BMW M4 DTM | 19.061 |
6 | Jamie Green | Audi RS5 DTM | 23.243 |
7 | Philipp Eng | BMW M4 DTM | 24.292 |
8 | Mike Rockenfeller | Audi RS5 DTM | 24.631 |
9 | Joel Eriksson | BMW M4 DTM | 27.050 |
10 | Robin Frijns | Audi RS5 DTM | 30.992 |
11 | Edoardo Mortara | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 32.458 |
12 | Daniel Juncadella | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 32.803 |
13 | Loic Duval | Audi RS5 DTM | 33.304 |
14 | Lucas Auer | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 38.266 |
15 | Bruno Spengler | BMW M4 DTM | 38.526 |
16 | Augusto Farfus | BMW M4 DTM | 40.550 |
17 | Nico Müller | Audi RS5 DTM | 41.673 |
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