Di Resta dream transforms title fight
DTM MISANO (I) AUGUST 25-26 ROUND 7/10 The DTM was back to its brilliant and unpredictable best at Misano last weekend, and that was mainly thanks to the sweltering Adriatic climate taking a turn for the worse just as the competition began in earnest. So did Gary Paffett’s title fortunes. The Mercedes veteran was comfortably ahead in the championship as he arrived in Italy, yet failed to score a single point under the floodlights in what literally became a nightmare. Team-mate Paul di Resta clung on to win a thrilling opening race, then did all he could on the wrong strategy on Sunday night to claim sixth place – and the Scot now leads the standings.
Di Resta claimed pole position for race one, which started on a damp track with the majority of the field on rain tyres. Paffett burst through from fourth on the grid to second, with Edoardo Mortara completing a Mercedes 1-2-3 as the track dried out.
Three cars had started the race on slick rubber and, as the remainder made early stops to get onto dry-weather tyres, so Daniel Juncadella’s Mercedes and the BMWS of Augusto Farfus and Bruno Spengler moved to the front. All was looking good for Juncadella, who was 42 seconds in front of di Resta – almost enough to emerge from his mandatory stop still in the lead, and with the possibility that with his tyres up to temperature he could extend that gap and retain the advantage. Then disaster struck Paffett.
On his second lap on slicks, the championship leader ran wide at Turn 8 and, as he rejoined he clattered into the right side of Mortara, breaking his steering and putting him out of the race. Mortara in turn had the BMW of Philipp Eng, who had been among the first to stop for slicks and had made up a host of places, to his left. “My intention was not to make contact,” said Mortara. “He came back on track pretty aggressively because I guess he didn’t see me on his left, and I had Eng on my left and got squeezed. I had damage to both sides.”
The resulting safety car scuppered the strategies of Juncadella, Farfus and Spengler – not that it mattered for Juncadella, who retired later with mechanical problems anyway. It also indirectly led to Spengler triggering a second safety car, when he hit Jamie Green, with Rene Rast collected in a three-car mix-up. Lucas Auer was also stranded after a collision with Joel Eriksson, meaning a further neutralisation of the race.
With Farfus yet to pit, di Resta was effectively the leader, but Eng was flying. The Austrian passed di Resta and pulled away, but then the BMW began to lose speed. “My car did take a few hits [including the Mortara collision],” he explained. “The damage from those clashes made itself known around 12 minutes before the end. I couldn’t do anything else then.”
Eng eventually faded to eighth, while di Resta and Mortara marched back in front, but the Audi of Robin Frijns was showing outstanding pace. Once he’d cleared the struggling Eng with six laps to go, Frijns started slashing the gap to the leading Mercs, which were running line astern. A superb defensive job by Mortara saved di Resta’s win. Frijns finally got ahead of Mortara out of Turn 14 on the last lap, surviving a panel-rub at Turn 15. He crossed the line 1.973 seconds behind di Resta, on whom he’d been making up 2s per lap before he caught Mortara.
Di Resta had driven a brilliant race in the tricky conditions. “The difficult point is reading it,” he said. “Where is the grip you can’t see?”
DTM rookies Frijns and Eng might have been denied their maiden wins on Saturday, but the other new boy Eriksson came up trumps on Sunday thanks to an inspired strategy – and a bit of luck.
BMW baby Eriksson was the only driver to start this race on slicks, and to be fair it looked a bit of a long shot as he slithered around at the tail of the field. Soon the majority of the rest of the field pitted – only for the rain to return. So they all had to pit for a second time, dropping off the lead lap, while Eriksson took this chance to make
his single mandatory stop. Up front, Mortara, Rast, Frijns and BMW guest star Alex Zanardi had all stayed on wets, and then a safety car – caused by Auer spinning into the barriers – allowed Eriksson to latch on to their tails.
Mortara put in a storming drive to attempt to build enough of an advantage to make his stop and rejoin in front of Eriksson, but the Swede kept the pace he needed on his ageing wet tyres. It was a perfectly judged tortoise-and-hare race, with Eriksson crossing the line 1.817s clear of the charging Mortara. “Joel did great to keep the car on the track and claim the victory,” acknowledged Bart Mampaey, head of Eriksson’s team RBM.
“The safety car pretty much screwed our race,” said Mortara. “Those were probably the worst conditions I ever had in the DTM. I’m happy I finished both of them!”
Rast survived an assault from Timo Glock at the start to take third from Frijns, while Zanardi – on the right strategy – took a headline-making fifth from di Resta. Meanwhile, there was more gloom for Paffett, who was trying to pass Spengler when he was bumped out of the points by team-mate Juncadella, who had already messed up by spinning in the pit-entry road. “I cannot remember a race as bad as this at any point in my career,” said the sheepish Juncadella.
Maybe so, but few of the onlookers could remember many DTM races anywhere near as unpredictable as these.