Bernd Mayländer drove his Eschmann-Stahl AMG Mercedes to victory in the tenth and final round of the 2001 DTM achieving his first victory in the championship and the 100th for Mercedes-Benz in DTM and ITC.
Maylander is the last winner on the 6.823 kilometre long Hockenheim Grand Prix circuit which will be modified and shortened next year. After 15 laps, Peter Dumbreck finished second 3.414sec behind his D2 AMG Mercedes team mate Bernd Schneider in third place.
The Eschmann-Stahl AMG Mercedes drivers Patrick Huisman and Mayländer finished 1-2 in the qualifying race ahead of Dumbreck. After two laps of the six-lap race the safety car was deployed due to accidents of Joachim Winkelhock (Opel Astra V8 Coupé) and Laurent Aiello (Abt-Audi TT-R). At the re-start entering the final lap, Mayländer and Dumbreck passed Michael Bartels who had achieved his first pole position of the year on Saturday.
The Manthey team's two blue Mercedes dominated the first six laps of the main event. Huisman made his compulsory pit stop at the end of lap 6 and was stationary for 26.4sec due to broken fixing screws on the brake disc mounting and dropped to twelfth. The Dutchman charged through the field and wanted to pass Uwe Alzen entering the stadium on lap 13, but both cars tangled and Huisman retired. ''This could have been my day, until my pit stop everything went well,'' Huisman said, ''but unfortunately I had the incident with Uwe.''
Mayländer was in the lead when he pitted on lap 7. He regained the top position one lap later and led until the chequered flag. ''This was a dream come true,'' Maylander said. ''Both starts went well and the teamwork with Patrick was great. After my team's excellent pit stop I could finish the race without pressure. I'm really happy to achieve my first DTM victory.''
