Tom Kristensen gave his title hopes a boost in the seventh round of the DTM Championship at Zandvoort, the Dane storming to his second victory of the season and edging the gap down to Bernd Schneider with just three races remaining.
Although qualifying proved something of a blip on what has been an otherwise Audi showcase of a weekend, Kristensen wasted no time in dispersing pole sitter Jamie Green, going on to take victory by less than a second over championship rival Schneider, the German using his experience to battle up from seventh on the grid.
Nonetheless, it was the Ingolstadt marque that would go on to fill third, fifth and sixth by the chequered flag, courtesy of Martin Tomczyk, Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Timo Scheider respectively, while Bruno Spengler, Stefan Mucke and Jamie Green claimed the other points positions in fourth, seventh and eighth.
The race for Kristensen was arguably made as soon as the race got underway, with Green, starting from his fourth pole position of the season, bogging down and coming out of the first corner already down in fifth place. Tomczyk, Mattias Ekstrom and Frentzen slipped ahead into second, third and fourth, although Green would re-pass the ex-
F1 driver before the end of the lap
Further back, Futurecom TME had an embarrassing moment when they witnessed their two drivers Nicolas Kiesa and Vanina Ickx come together at Masters, the latter having to retire when her bonnet came loose.
With passing on the twisty Dutch circuit notoriously difficult, race position was always likely to be somewhat decided during the two mandatory pit stops, although that did not deter Mika Hakkinen as attempted to pass Christian Abt. However, the circuit's reputation came to haunt him when he was unable to stop in time, knocking the German off into retirement, leaving the Finn to cop a drive-through penalty and effectively ending his race chances.
