Gary Paffett retook the lead of the pan-European DTM touring car series in sensational style at Zandvoort in Holland as he scored his fourth victory from eight races in his factory-entered AMG Mercedes-Benz C-Class.

In the process, Gary overturned his one-point deficit to Audi’s reigning champion Mattias Ekstrom and now holds a one-point lead with three races remaining. Gary beat Ekstrom by over 12-seconds at Zandvoort in one of the most comprehensive performances of his racing career.

From testing on Friday, Gary set the wheels in motion for his successful weekend. Along with his HWA engineers, he found a perfect set-up for both qualifying and the race. “The car was good from the start,” said Gary. “I was very happy with it, especially in race trim compared to the Audis.”

Qualifying started well, with Gary setting the second fastest time of the pre-qualifying session on his very first lap: “I was happy to run second to last in the Super Pole, and it meant I was able to save a set of tyres for the race.”

On his single-lap Super Pole effort, Gary admitted to making a couple of small errors, which compromised his lap time. He would start fourth on the grid: “I did a great first sector, and was on course for another pole, but I just went over the limit in a couple of places and lost four-tenths. I was quite disappointed with myself to only be fourth.”

Things got worse before they got better. Gary got boxed in at the start, allowing Ekstrom to get past him to grab third while Gary had to settle for fifth on the opening lap: “Because I was on the inside of the grid, and the first turn is a right-hander, everyone came across onto my side of the track. I had to sit and watch as Ekstrom stayed on the outside and drove around everybody.”

He soon got on the move, passing Marcel Fassler’s Opel on lap two with a smart move. The pre-race gameplan involved an early first pitstop, but this strategy almost backfired when Gary, and team-mate Bernd Schneider, got stuck behind the obstinate Audi of Rinaldo Capello. Lap after lap, they were unable to find a way past until Schneider locked up and hit the Audi at Tarzan corner, allowing Gary to nip past them both: “Capello made it very hard for us – he was blocking, which I felt was out of order. I was losing chunks of time to Ekstrom, and it cost me the freshness of my new tyres too.”

In clean air, Gary got his teeth into those ahead of him. By the time his rivals made their first stop, he was ensconced in the lead. After he made his second stop, Gary rejoined with title rival Ekstrom at close quarters, but he simply crushed the Swede’s aspirations by lapping at a pace that Ekstrom simply couldn’t handle. Gary would win by over 12-seconds.

“It was certainly my most convincing win of the year,” he said afterwards. “I have to thank the team and the engineers, they did the perfect job for me. The car was perfect, we made some great pitstops. I was doing laptimes without pushing that Mattias couldn’t come close to. Now I’m back in front of the title race, I intend to stay there. The car is competitive at every track we go to. I feel very confident about the rest of the year.”