Timo Scheider has moved into his first match point position after victory in the latest round of the DTM at the Circuit de Catalunya put him 12 points clear at the top of the table with two rounds remaining.
The German, who seeking to become the first driver in nine years to defend their DTM crown, got a great start from fifth position on the grid to lead into the tight first turn, although he was aided by front row sitters Tom Kristensen and Martin Tomczyk not disputing his charge.
From here, a good strategy from the Audi team saw him stretch away into a lead he wouldn't lose to the chequered flag, the result now giving him the chance to wrap up the title at Dijon-Prenois, the penultimate round of the championship.
Another dominant performance for Audi, Scheider went on to be flanked on the podium by loyal team-mates Kristensen and Tomcyzk, while his title quest was aided by lower scores for closest rivals Mattias Ekstrom and Gary Paffett.
“I had a rocket start. I think that it would be nice when you could plan something like this,” said Scheider of his fifth career win. “But today, it was largely luck and good work by my team. A margin of twelve points in the championship sounds very good. Now, we can take on the two remaining races in a relaxed way”,
Paffett clings onto third in the overall standings after finishing as the best Mercedes representative in fourth position, although he was disappointed with his performance.
“Of course, I am disappointed. We want to be in contention for the top positions and we wanted to beat Audi. Unfortunately, that didn't work out, we just didn't have the necessary speed. In qualifying, we had the same speed as Audi. But today, it wasn't enough - for whatever reason. Probably, fourth place was all we could achieve.”
Bruno Spengler was fifth after capitalising on Ekstrom's failed attempt to pass Paffett, the Swede instead dropping to sixth at the chequered flag. Paul di Resta came home in seventh having run as high as third, while Alex Premat was the only driver using a '08 specification model to score in eighth after resisting Oliver Jarvis and Maro Engel.
