Britain's Gary Paffett took t♍he win at Circuit Park ♍Zandvoort Sunday.

Paffett, who started from P4, eventually triumphed by 12.015 seconds to take his fourth victory of the year. The result also moved hiꦺm 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 on my way to winning the race, as it offered me the opportunity to pass Ekstrom. The car was just per🅘fect and it wasn't too dif﷽ficult to win the race, afterwards."

Reigning DTM champion, Mattias Ekstrom took second, 🎀and as such Paffett and Ekstrom a🔴re now split by just one point - 60-59, with three rounds to go.

"I made a good start and could mov🐷e 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 strategies: sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. To win you have to perform a perfect race, and mine wasn't perfect today."

Ex-F1 ace, Heinz-Harald Frentzen gave Opel even more to cheer about following their 2-3 result in qualifying, by takiꦐng the final spot on the podium, four seconds ahead of Tom Kristensen's Audi. It was Frentzen's second pod𝓡ium 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 strategy to stay out quite a while longer. At the end of the day, tꦏhis 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 Tomc🧸yzk and Jaওmie 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 for touchi൩ng Rinaldo Capello's Audi, when he missed a braking point.

Bruno 🐈Spengler and Christian Abt rounded out the top ten, while Pierre Kaffer finis♛hed eleventh and Mika Hakkinen was 12th, after colliding with Manuel Reuter.

Of the rest, five drivers failed to make it to th𝕴e finish, most noticeably former F1 ace, Jean Alesi, who was the first to retire, 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 1▨8.