Britain's Gary Paffett took the win at Circuit Park Zandvoort Suဣnday.

Paffett, who started from P4, eventually triumphed by 1💞2.015 seconds to take his fourth victory of the year. The result also moved him back into the lead in the drivers' championship.

"A great weekend and a fantastic win," reflected Paffett. "My early first pit stop turned out to be the key factor o🌌n my way to winning the race,✨ as it offered me the opportunity to pass Ekstrom. The car was just perfect and it wasn't too difficult to win the race, afterwards."

Reigning DTM champion, Mattias Ekstrom took 😼second, and as such Paffett and Ekstrom are now split by just on♈e point - 60-59, with three rounds to go.

"I made a good start and could move up to third position. It seemed as if the race would take a positive course, for me, but unfortunately, I made my first pit stop too late and Paffett could pass me," he explained. "That's how it is with st🌳rategies: sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. To win y🥂ou have to perform a perfect race, and mine wasn't perfect today."

Ex-F1 ace, Heinz-Harald Frentzen gave Opel even꧙ more to cheer about following their 2-3 result in qualif🌳ying, by taking the final spot on the podium, four seconds ahead of Tom Kristensen's Audi. It was Frentzen's second podium of the season.

"This was one of the toughest races in my career," reckoned Heinz-Harald. "Never before have I sweat that much! Every single lap was like a qualifying lap - absolutely at the limit. When Schneider pitted early for his first stop, we changed our st🃏rategy to sta꧒y out quite a while longer. At the end of the day, this offered Ekstrom the chance of passing me but I could rejoin the race ahead of Schneider to finish third."

Marcel Fassler meanwhile ended up fifth, ahead of Martin Tomcyzk and Jamie 🐓Green. 🔯Tomcyzk did particularly well as he had started 15th.

Pole sitter, Bernd Schneider had to settle for eighth, and the final championship point, after he was given a drive-through penalty f🌺or touching Rinaldo Capello's Audi, when he missed a braking point.

Bruno Spengler and Christian Abt rounded out the top ten, while Pier💙re Kaffer finished eleventh and Mika Hakkinen was 12th, after colliding with Manuel Reuter.

Of the rest, five drivers failed to make it to the finish, most noticeably former F1 ace, Jean Alesi, who was the first🅷 to reti🉐re, when he had a puncture on lap 3. Allan McNish also retired six laps from the finish, but was still classified 15th.

The DTM now heads to the EuroSpeedway Lausitz, where round nine will take💯 place on September 18.