DTM

Shanghai: Gary Praffett race report

A WIN AT SHANGHAI SECURES SECOND PLACE IN THE 2010 DTM CHAMPIONSHIP FOR PAFFETT British DTM driver Gary Paffett has secured second place in the 2010 Championship following a win at the Shanghai street circuit. This year's result in the ...

Edited: Dec 1, 2010, 1:54 AM

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A WIN AT SHANGHAI SECURES SECOND PLACE IN THE 2010 DTM CHAMPIONSHIP FOR PAFFETT

British DTM driver Gary Paffett has secured second place in the 2010 Championship following a win at the Shanghai street circuit. This year's result in the Championship sees Gary add to his impressive tally of Championship results in DTM with one Championship win in 2005 and three second places.

Saturday's qualifying session was a chaotic affair, with the red flag being brought out in every qualifying session. Championship leader Bruno Spengler crashed out in the first session, damaging his car, and only managing to set the 17th best time. Paffett kept a cool head and went on to set the second fastest time in Q3. Following the red flags being brought out for Jamie Green's accident at the start of Q4 the session was stopped and the positions from Q3 were used to determine Sunday's grid.

On Sunday afternoon Paffett lined his Salzgitter Mercedes-Benz AMG up on the first row of the grid, alongside Championship rival Di Resta. Following the incident-filled qualifying session, and after lengthy meetings between teams, drivers and senior DTM figures, it had been decided that the cars would spend the first three laps of the race behind the safety car. Then, once the field was released, the race would be under yellow flag conditions for the first three corners.

At the end of lap three the safety car headed in and on the exit of turn three the field was free to race.

The first few laps were incident free and Paffett kept on the back of Di Resta, right up to his first pit stop on lap 18 where Paffett inherited the lead.

Over the next six laps while Di Resta was getting his tyres up to temperature, Paffett pushed hard and set a series of quick laps.

Six laps later Paffett made his first pit stop and thanks to a clean stop by the team and the time he'd built up while leading the pack, he rejoined ahead of Di Resta, leapfrogging him into P1.

The focus was then to get heat into the tyres as quickly as possible whilst judging exactly how hard to push on this challenging street circuit. By mid-race Paffett had pulled out a three second lead on Di Resta, before pitting for the second time on lap 28.

On lap 34 Di Resta pitted for the second time but due to another series of strong lap times by Paffett he was unable to jump him in the pitstop and rejoined behind him. All three Championship contenders had now pitted twice, with Spengler having a tough race in P13.

In the closing laps, Scheider and Tomczyk started to close in on Di Resta but on lap 50 Rockefeller and Stoddart span at the first corner. The race was red flagged and brought to a premature end with 6:44 minutes remaining and over 75 percent of the race finished.

Paffett crossed the finish line in first place with Di Resta in second and Spengler in thirteenth; resulting in Paffett securing second in the 2010 Championship.

"I came to Shanghai as the title outsider; nine points behind Bruno and six behind Paul, but with the aim of doing all I could to clinch the title. Winning the race today I did all I could and the rest was down to where Bruno and Paul finished. Paul drove a great race to finish second and I want to offer him my congratulations for winning the Championship;" commented Paffett.

"I also want to say a huge thank you to my team for all their hard work this year and for giving me a fantastic car. Being the only driver to score points at every single race this season is testimony to the team's work over the past 12 months;" continued Paffett.

"It's been a fantastic season and I'm already looking forward to coming back in 2011 and going one better and winning the Championship;" commented Paffett.

Today's result sees Paffett secure second place in the Championship with 67 points, 4 points behind 2010 Champion Di Resta and one points ahead of third place Spengler. Paffett's team - Salzgitter Mercedes-Benz AMG -- secures the team ranking with (133) points.

-source: garypaffett.com

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