AFTER just 14 races in the world's most competitive saloon car championship, Bathgate's Paul Di Resta scored his maiden victory in the German Touring Car Championship (DTM) when he dominated the latest round at the Lausitzring in Germany.
In front of 80,000 spectators, the 22-year-old led from start to finish after beginning the race from pole position, the first time the talented young Scot had qualified in the No1 slot.
"The race went brilliantly from my perspective," said Di Res
ta, who is now the lead Mercedes works driver in the championship. "The start was crucial and leading through the opening two corners meant I could gradually pull away from the field."
By the end of the first lap of the tight and twisty 2.1-mile circuit, the Scot was 1.6 seconds ahead of fellow Merc driver, Canadian Bruno Spengler. By lap nine the gap had increased to 3.6s.
"I just kept everything smooth and the pace just came," Di Resta continued. "The guys in the team have worked brilliantly to give me such a fast car and it's terrific to pay them back with our first win."
Di Resta's pace was blistering. On lap 12 he set a new lap record for DTM cars at the Lausitzring, clocking 1min 19.302secs. A lap later he dropped the time to 1:19.255, and on lap 18 he shattered the lap record with a best time of 1:18.938s.
"That just lets you see how quick the car was today," former European Formula 3 champ Di Resta, who backed off towards the end of the 51-lap race to eventually win by 5.562secs ahead of Timo Scheider with the second Audi of Mattias Ekstrom's third, a further three seconds adrift.
Di Resta's achievements were acknowledged not just by his boss at Mercedes-Benz, Norbert Haug, but by Audi Motorsport boss Dr Wolfgang Ullrich.
"Congratulations to Paul," Ullrich, who will mastermind Dumfries racer Allan McNish's bid to win the Le Mans 24-Hour race next month, said. "He drove a great race and we didn't have a possibility to overtake him."
Haug added: "That was a great race from Paul. Today, he was in a class of his own and has deserved this win."
The full article contains 390 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
