Bathgate’s Paul di Resta was left frustrated and angry after a botched pitstop at the Lausitzring cruelly robbed him of his first win in the German DTM Championship for nine months.
The 24-year-old, who started the 52-lap race at the 2.2-mile circuit from pole position, led from the start and gradually opened a three-second lead over his Mercedes team-mate, Canadian Bruno Spengler.
The duo easily established an advantage over the rest of the field with the Scot comfortably holding his lead through the first round of two compulsory pitstops.
But Di Resta’s race was wrecked when he was delayed at his second pitstop at the end of lap 34 by a problem with the left-rear wheel.
“I don’t know what the problem was, but I intend to find out,” a clearly disappointed Di Resta, who eventually recovered to finish 4.542secs behind Spengler, said today.
“I had that race totally under control and it should have been a case of having a routine pitstop and really just cruising to the victory we deserved. But it didn’t work out that way, and I have to find out why. All I know at the moment is we had a problem with the left-rear.”
Once back on track, Di Resta had initially hunted down Spengler in an effort to retake the lead and claim his first win since Brands Hatch last September but he backed off towards the end to ensure a dominant Mercedes 1-2-3.
While Spengler held on to win his first race since the Norisring in 2007, England’s Jamie Green completed the top three in a 2008-spec Mercedes.
There were mixed fortunes for the other two Scots Mercedes drivers in the field. Former F1 racer David Coulthard was forced out after he was hit by the spinning Audi of Mattias Ekstrom on the first lap.
Despite rejoining the race after his pitcrew completed repairs to his damaged car, he was forced to retire on lap seven. Oban’s Susie Stoddart meanwhile, who took advantage of the incident on the first lap, finished seventh to score her first-ever DTM points.
Di Resta, who flies to Montreal on Tuesday to prepare for this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix in his role of reserve driver with Force India, heads to the next DTM round at the Norisring on July 4, second in the championship, nine points behind Spengler.
JM