"When I spotted Christijan and Bernd Schneider in my rear-view mirror, I knew that I'd have to fight hard to keep my second place," Ekstrom said, before being notified of Paffett's exclusion, "The duels with Albers were tough but fair - we've exchanged lots of blue and silver paint recently - but, in the DTM, every millimetre counts. If you want to be at the very front of the field, you have to drive hard and right at the limit. I think we put on a spectacular show for the audience today - even though this may have put quite a strain on the nerves of my pit crew!"
Behind them, Schneider headed a train comprising Laurent Aiello and Jean Alesi, but had the upper hand on his two veteran rivals and eased out to a three-second advantage by the chequered flag. The two 'As' continued to scrap right up to the flag - thrilling the packed 74,000 crowd almost as much as the battle for second spot - with Aiello grabbing fourth for Opel after resisting his compatriot to the flag.
"I'm very happy to finish in the top five having started from so far back," Aiello reckoned, "If I had a better starting position, with the car I had today I feel it would have been possible to win - the car was that good. It was a shame about the yellow flag situation in qualifying, because I didn't see one."
A second Opel, driven by Timo Scheider, also appeared to be on course for points before Paffett's exclusion, and heading Audi sportscar veteran Emanuele Pirro into the closing stages. However, a brush with the Audi of Martin Tomczyk proved costly after the event, with a 50-second penalty dropping the Opel to an unrepresentative 17th at the flag.
