At the Italian round of the German Touring Car Championship, the DTM, Audi defended its overall lead. Although he scored no points at Mugello after a jump start, Audi driver Timo Scheider continues to head the leaderboard and took pole position for the race. Tom Kristensen clinched third place for Audi in an action-packed race. A total of five Audi A4 DTM cars finished in the points in the top eight finishers.
The chance for a possible third consecutive victory by Scheider was forfeited from the start when he was judged to have jumped the red lights. The resulting drive-through penalty caused him to drop to 17th place. With a remarkable recovery and captivating overtaking maneuvers, he fought his way back to tenth place.
Title defender Mattias Ekstrm, did not make a perfect start either: the Swede dropped from fourth to tenth place, had to pit earlier than planned because he was stuck in traffic and, in the end, was happy to score points in sixth.
His team-mate, Martin Tomczyk was entangled in a collision in the the first turn, causing his hood to come off. Only after one lap the German had to come in for an unscheduled pit stop and lost too much ground.The only flawless Audi A4 race was that of Tom Kristensen, who finished in third. At the beginning he put pressure on the second-placed Paul di Resta driving a Mercedes. The duel was decided after the first pit stop, to the disadvantage of the Audi driver, when a 2007-spec Mercedes slowed Kristensen for almost an entire lap. As a result, the Le Mans record winner lost Di Resta's trail and the chance for second place. Subsequently, he concentrated on securing third position.Oliver Jarvis finished fifth in the Audi Sport Team Phoenix car and was the best placed driver in a 2007 A4. What's more, he clinched his first points in his DTM career. With Mattias Ekstrm, Markus Winkelhock and Alexandre Prmat in positions six to eight, a total of five Audi drivers finished in the points.
After the race, Tom Kristensen commented: "The start was okay. In the first turn Jamie (Green) was in front already, but there was a nice fight with Paul di Resta and Timo Scheider. We went into the next corners side by side, and I was in third position. Up to the first pit stop, I was quicker than Paul. My pit stop was good, but so was Paul's. After leaving the pit lane I kept trailing him closely. Then, unfortunately, we caught a white Mercedes, which let di Resta pass but slowed me for a whole lap. I lost a little more than four seconds in the process. On this circuit that means the race is over. That was a shame because I'd have liked to keep fighting with Paul for second place. I think the spectators would have enjoyed that too. My car was superb. But 20kg of additional weight do make a difference over a whole racing distance."
Timo Scheider said: "The race itself was great but my start was the reason for my flop. I probably didn't warm up my brakes enough. Although the parking brake was on, there was a jolt. So the pressure wasn't high enough. When preloading it the car moved. I'm really sorry about that. It was my mistake. So although I didn't win the race, we're still leading the standings."