Race – Ekstrom starts 2008 in style

Mattias Ekstrom starts the 2008 season in the best possible way by winning the race at Hockenheim. Audi thus confirms its status as a leader this year.

« It was a very good weekend for us from the first round to the checkered flag, » said Ekström.

« We were convinced that a good race result was possible here. We had a solid race with two very good pit stops. You always hope to have a good start to the season and for me, I am very happy with my 10 points, it’s simply incredible. »

The victorious team even achieves the triple, Timo Scheider is second less than a second behind his teammate. This situation is rare enough to be noted. He has been very close to Ekström on several occasions but never close enough to attempt an overtake.

Tom Kristensen takes third place, losing six seconds in the last lap. He finishes more than 19 seconds behind the leader, just ahead of the first Mercedes…

And indeed, Spengler is the best Mercedes driver with his fourth place while di Resta faced numerous difficulties. After the second stop, something was wrong. A problem with the nut on the rear tire forced his team to stop him again. Due to this delay, di Resta dropped to 13th place.

Martin Tomczyk finishes 5th after starting the race from 7th position. The German lost a tough battle against Spengler over the last two laps but went a little too wide in a corner, ruining his chances for 4th place.

Jamie Green arrives home in 6th position for Mercedes after a rather calm race, Gary Paffett takes 7th place.

Bernd Schneider clinches the last point, ahead of Oliver Jarvis. The rookie Ralf Schumacher is 14th, 49.8 seconds behind the winner.

Race Result – Hockenheim

See the full live result