Paffett wins at
Istanbul -
A black day for
Ekström In rainy conditions, 32,000 spectators
travelled to the Istanbul Park for DTM's inaugural
Turkish round - and witnessed a remarkable performance
of the Mercedes-Benz drivers. On Sunday, Gary Paffett
(DaimlerChrysler Bank AMG-Mercedes) secured the win,
in his AMG-Mercedes C-Class, followed by his
brand-mates Mika Häkkinen, Bernd Schneider and Jamie
Green. "This was a perfect weekend and a major
step on the way to the title," beamed the winner.
At the same time, Mattias Ekström (Audi Sport Team
Abt Sportsline), the previous championship leader, had
to settle for twelfth place in his Audi A4 DTM and
left Istanbul empty-handed. The best Opel driver in
the penultimate round of the season was Laurent Aiello
who took his Opel Vectra GTS V8 to sixth place.
Kristensen
improved from 10th up to 5th position during the
raceRight at the start of the 32-lap race (170.816
kilometres), Mattias Ekström impressed by a fantastic
start. From his fifth grid position, he passed
Mercedes-Benz drivers Jamie Green and Bruno Spengler
even before the field entered turn one. Yet, this
success turned out to be short-lived. At the end of
lap one, Ekström and Green battled for third position
while approaching the pit-straight, and following a
slight contact, Ekström dropped back to sixth
position. During his two compulsory stops, the 27-year
old Swede lost even more time and he was also hampered
by problems on his car. It was the first time since
the Donington round back in 2003 that Ekström failed
to score points.
At the same
time, his rival in the battle for the championship,
Gary Paffett, impressed the crowds with a perfect
performance, thus living up to his nickname 'Gary
Perfect'. In spite of the rain falling during the
first third of the race and the accordingly difficult
track conditions, he led from the start to the finish
line. With just the season finale at Hockenheim to go,
(21st to 23rd October), 24-year old Paffett (78
points) has won five races and holds a nine-point lead
over Ekström (69 points), with Tom Kristensen (Audi
Sport Team Abt, 51 points) following in third
position. Due to this situation, it will be very
difficult now for Ekström to defend his title. His
only chance to do so would be to win the season finale
with Paffett scoring no points at all. The last time
the Briton left a DTM round empty-handed was 16 races
ago: last year's EuroSpeedway Lausitz round when he
was excluded after the race.
Jean Alesi
(AMG-Mercedes), who had to make an additional stop due
to a refuelling problem during his first stop,
finished seventh, and Bruno Spengler (Junge Gebrauchte
von Mercedes) came eighth, thus scoring another point
and again turning out to be the best driver of a
2004-spec car.
Race quotes
Gary Paffett (Winner, DaimlerChrysler Bank
AMG-Mercedes): "My car was just great throughout
the weekend. The team achieved a great result. It
feels a kind of strange to suddenly hold a nine-point
lead when there was never more than a one-point gap,
in the past races. But I'm not yet the champion as
anything can happen, in motor racing. It would be just
great to win the title by also winning the race at
Hockenheim."
Mika Häkkinen
(2nd place, Sport Edition AMG-Mercedes): "I'm
feeling fantastically. Today's mission was to secure
the maximum success and we succeeded in doing so. For
me, second place was the best I could achieve, today.
The overall result of Mercedes-Benz is just great.
That's the way we want to continue."
*** We asist you for your hotel reservations, transfers, tours and ticket arrangements
in Istanbul.
Package 1:
Accommodation : 3 Nights in 4* Hotel (City Center)
Transfers : Airport — Hotel
Hotel — Stadium / Stadium - Hotel
Stadium — Airport
Price : Single Room 285 EUR
: Per PAX in Double Room 215 EUR
: Per PAX in Tripple Room 170 EUR
Package 2:
Accommodation : 3 Nights in 3* Hotel (City Center)
Transfers : Airport — Hotel
Hotel — Stadium / Stadium - Hotel
Stadium — Airport
Price : Single Room 260 EUR
: Per PAX in Double Room 185 EUR
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Istanbul City Tour : *** 35 EUR per Pax upon request.
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Travel Turkey - 2005
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