Gary Paffett scored his third win of the 2005 DTM touring car series at the Norisring street track in Nuremburg, Germany, on Sunday to grab the lead of the championship in front of a record crowd figure of 143,000 fans.

Despite dropping as low as 10th due to a Safety Car period that effectively wiped out his hard-earned lead, Gary fought his way through the hurly-burly of the DTM pack to notch up an amazing hat-trick of wins in just six races. He fought a tough duel with seven-time Le Mans 24 Hours winner Tom Kristensen on his way to victory that lifts him ahead of last year’s champion, Mattias Ekstrom, by three points.

Gary’s weekend started well, placing fifth and fourth in the two one-and-a-half hour test sessions. He said: “We felt very confident coming here and I was quite happy with my positions on Friday, although it was clear that the advantage Mercedes normally has here wasn’t quite as clear-cut as usual. I did a very strong race run, with some really good times at the end, so we laid a solid foundation for the rest of the weekend.”

Saturday’s hour of free practice allowed Gary the time to refine the set-up of his car ahead of qualifying, with changes to the rear of his DaimlerChrysler Bank AMG C-Class in particular making it more stable under braking. Gary added: “We also made it better through the chicane, which is where the Audis were really quick, so we were confident of going for pole in qualifying.”

That mission started well, as Gary set the fastest time in the pre-qualifying session, just pipping his team-mate, ex-F1 star Jean Alesi, to the fastest time as the chequered flag fell. “I started my lap with something like 4secs left on the clock, so I knew it was now or never,” said Gary. “Jean wasn’t best pleased that I beat him, but we’re good friends, so it’s okay!”

That just left the Super Pole for Gary to seal another pole position to add to his collection, but this time it wasn’t to be. Gary crossed the line just 0.009secs slower than Tom Kristensen had managed in his Audi. “To miss out on pole is bad enough, but to do it by nine-thousandths of a second feels even worse,” said Gary. “I lost a fraction when I braked slightly early for the first hairpin and got wheelspin on the exit. Because there is only four corners around here, it’s impossible to make up a deficit like that. Still, a place on the front row is a good place to be, and pole position has been jinxed recently anyway!”

As he had hoped, Gary grabbed the lead at the opening corner after a tough wheel-to-wheel fight with Kristensen and was able to pull away in the opening five laps. Then a Safety Car was needed to clear up a crash, and its timing meant that it was too late for Gary to pit, allowing many of those behind to gain an advantage over him.

Undeterred by this, Gary stuck to his strategy but had to give up the lead when he finally pitted on lap 30, when another big shunt called out the Safety Car again. His Mercedes team decided to bring him in for his second stop on the very next lap, and although this would drop him right down the order, it gave him another 30 laps to regain all the time lost. He carved through the pack, overtaking car after car and hit the front again with just 12 laps remaining to record one of the most amazing wins in the series’ history.

“That was a stunning race, quite incredible,” said Gary. “Everything was going to plan until the Safety Car appeared, and that really caused us a big headache. I couldn’t believe it when the team radioed me to say we would pit on two consecutive laps, but it was a masterstroke of strategy. I really have to thank them for that. In the end, I was even able to back off a bit, because the hard work had already been done. Now we’re leading the championship, we intend to stay there.”