“Meanwhile, at the Weekend: Paffett wins in Lausitzring”

HWA Mercedes racer Gary Paffett stormed to his first DTM victory of the season at the Lausitzring on Sunday, ahead of Mike Rockenfeller and Christian Vietoris.

Starting 2nd, Paffett led poleman Vietoris by the first turn, soon building a three-second lead by the first scheduled stops, eventually emerging ahead of the early stopping Rockenfeller.

From there, Paffett proceeded to build a gap over the chasing pack, before taking the chequered flag just under seven seconds ahead of Rockenfeller, making it four different winners from four races.

For the Audi man, 2nd place brings Rockenfeller to the top of the points standings, joint level on points with reigning champion Bruno Spengler. Running 6th early on, an off-kilter pit strategy helped to promote Rockenfeller up to 3rd, slotting in between the hard charging Robert Wickens and Vietoris, before Rockenfeller passed Wickens.

Where Rockenfeller exacted a lengthy stint on the harder compound tyres, Wickens began to fall back somewhat in the later tours, allowing Vietoris to catch and pass for the final podium place late on.
Behind the leading quartet Jamie Green assumed 5th, garnering a healthy gap over the chasing trio of Daniel Juncadella (6th, a superb effort from 13th), Spengler (7th) and Mattias Ekstrom. Indeed Ekstrom was making waves in the final laps thanks to moves on Adrien Tambay, Pascal Wehrlein and Edoardo Mortara.
Both Tambay and Wehrlein would fall back late on, promoting Mortara to 9th and Roberto Merhi to 10th.

2013 DTM Round of Lausitzring (Rd 4, June 16th; 52 laps)
Pos  Driver              Team/Car             Time/Gap
 1.  Gary Paffett        HWA Mercedes     1h09m58.562s 
 2.  Mike Rockenfeller   Phoenix Audi          +6.800s
 3.  Christian Vietoris  HWA Mercedes         +11.510s
 4.  Robert Wickens      HWA Mercedes         +12.790s
 5.  Jamie Green         Abt Audi             +14.138s
 6.  Daniel Juncadella   Mucke Mercedes       +19.462s
 7.  Bruno Spengler      Schnitzer BMW        +21.592s
 8.  Mattias Ekstrom     Abt Audi             +21.621s
 9.  Edoardo Mortara     Rosberg Audi         +24.715s
10.  Roberto Merhi       HWA Mercedes         +25.643s
11.  Adrien Tambay       Abt Audi             +27.968s
12.  Augusto Farfus      RBM BMW              +34.178s
13.  Dirk Werner         Schnitzer BMW        +38.000s
14.  Timo Glock          MTEK BMW             +49.305s
15.  Joey Hand           RBM BMW              +53.321s
16.  Miguel Molina       Phoenix Audi         +58.882s
17.  Pascal Wehrlein     Mucke Mercedes       +59.948s
18.  Filipe Albuquerque  Rosberg Audi       +1m03.083s
19.  Martin Tomczyk      RMG BMW            +1m03.107s
20.  Timo Scheider       Abt Audi           +1m08.006s
21.  Marco Wittmann      MTEK BMW               +1 lap
22.  Andy Priaulx        RMG BMW                +1 lap

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