Oct 5, 2008
At Le Mans, Audi celebrated their fifth DTM victory of the season with Mattias Ekström, and with Alexandre Prémat, at the latter’s home race, the first podium result of a year-old car in the current season. Timo Scheider defended the lead of the standings with a two-point advantage – the title decision from an extremely thrilling starting base will therefore be made at the finale at Hockenheim three weeks from now. The constantly changing intensity of the rain turned the tenth round into a lottery and thus the most action-packed race of the season so far: only four of the 19 drivers came in for the two mandatory pit stops, all other classified drivers pitted three, and two drivers even as much as four times.
After a brilliant start Timo Scheider on slicks took the lead in the first phase of the race ahead of his brand colleagues Mattias Ekström, Alexandre Prémat and Mercedes driver Paul di Resta. Up to his first stop on lap eleven the DTM leader was running in front on the Circuit Bugatti when he put on slicks again and the lead went to his team-mate Mattias Ekström for six laps. The Swede, who on lap 17, as at the start, received untreaded tyres, took the lead on the 24th lap for the next three.
Then the rain changed in such short cycles that instead of the prescribed two stops a total of three tyre changes, respectively, were required for Ekström, Scheider and other Audi drivers.
At his second stop after 26 laps Ekström first put on slicks but in heavier rain had to change to wets on lap 31. The Swede, who was visibly weakened by a bout of flu, with a 4.2-second lead celebrated his third victory of the season after his exploits at Hockenheim and Zandvoort. In his DTM career the Swede thus secured as much as his 13th race victory.
Timo Scheider received slicks on lap 27 as well. Minutes later the rain got heavier so that he had to switch back to treaded tyres at a third stop on the 31st lap. Hence Scheider finished sixth in the end. Since the second race of the season at Oschersleben the 29-year-old factory driver has been leading the standings and will travel to the finale at Hockenheim with a two-point advantage over Paul di Resta.
Alexandre Prémat in the 2007-spec Audi A4 DTM was the best driver of a year-old car in the group of the front runners. Particularly remarkable was the fact that besides Prémat only three other drivers – including Mike Rockenfeller – merely changed tyres twice. The Frenchman Prémat completed the entire racing distance in most difficult conditions on slicks. In the early phase the 26-year-old thrilled his home audience with strong duels against Mercedes driver Paul di Resta. In the end Prémat, after several position changes, prevailed against Mercedes driver Gary Paffett in the fight for the first podium result of a driver of a year-old car in the 2008 season.
Behind Timo Scheider in sixth place a fourth Audi A4 DTM finished in the points: after three stops, Tom Kristensen clinched eighth place in front of Mike Rockenfeller.
The results at Le Mans
1 Mattias Ekström (Red Bull Audi A4 DTM) 41 laps in 1h 10m11.103s
2 Paul di Resta (Mercedes) + 4.250s
3 Alexandre Prémat (Audi Bank/Shell Helix Audi A4 DTM) + 10.946s
4 Gary Paffett (Mercedes) + 11.393s
5 Bernd Schneider (Mercedes) + 17.200s
6 Timo Scheider (GW:plus/Top Service Audi A4 DTM) + 18.806s
7 Bruno Spengler (Mercedes) + 19.318s
8 Tom Kristensen (Audi A4 DTM) + 20.074s
9 Mike Rockenfeller (S line Audi A4 DTM) + 26.014s
10 Jamie Green (Mercedes) + 29.940s
11 Markus Winkelhock (Playboy Audi A4 DTM) + 31.645s
12 Susie Stoddart (Mercedes) + 1m 28.642s
13 Christijan Albers (Audi A4 DTM) + 1m 39.120s
14 Maro Engel (Mercedes) - 1 lap
15 Mathias Lauda (Mercedes) - 1 lap
16 Katherine Legge (Audi A4 DTM) - 2 laps
Not classified:
Oliver Jarvis (Audi) - 15 laps (accident)
Martin Tomczyk (Audi) - 40 laps (accident)
Ralf Schumacher (Mercedes) - 41 laps (accident)
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