Audi's Timo Scheider led from pole position to take his second DTM victory of 2008 at Brands Hatch today (Sunday).

Scheider made a strong start from the front of the grid and led until his first pit stop, at which point Martin Tomczyk was promoted to first place.

Scheider rejoined in third position behind Mattias Ekstrom, but re-took the lead when both Tomczyk and Ekstrom pitted, with Mercedes' Paul di Resta in second place.

For the remainder of the race, Scheider was chased down hard by di Resta - at one point the gap was as narrow as 0.3s. However, heavy traffic played into Scheider's hands and his Mercedes rival was forced to settle for second place.

Scheider said: "It has been a special weekend for me here, not only to win but also in the championship as I have struggled here in the past two years so to come back and manage a victory was fantastic - we will have a big party tonight to celebrate! That was a hard race as everyone was fighting for position, but I still have three races and it will be tough until the end and the championship is decided."

After a late first pit stop, Mattias Ekstrom took third place ahead of championship second place-man Jamie Green.

Ekstrom said: "My performance here was good today as I didn't have third gear in qualifying so lost time yesterday. I made a reasonable start and I saw Timo and Paul were pulling away. I knew what I had to do when the others were in the pits. The team came up with the strategy today and it was certainly something extraordinary."

There was a three-way battle for much of the race between Martin Tomczyk, Bruno Spengler and Tom Kristensen, with the trio going wheel-to-wheel at several points. Tomczyk stole won the tussle to seal fifth place with Spengler sixth and Kristensen seventh.

Gary Paffett fought off a late charge from Bernd Schneider to grab the last points position and become the third British driver to finish in the top eight.

After a strong start, Oliver Jarvis struggled to keep pace with the 2008 cars in his year-old Mercedes, but eventually finished in a solid 12th place.

It was a difficult weekend for Katherine Legge, who finished 19th after going off at Druids on lap 53 before receiving a drive through penalty for speeding in the pit lane.

DTM Brands Hatch race result:

1. Timo Scheider (Top Service Audi A4 DTM), 1h00m25.549s
2. Paul Di Resta (AMG Mercedes C-Klasse), +0.793s
3. Mattias Ekstrom (Red Bull Audi A4 DTM), +4.077s
4. Jamie Green (Salzgitter AMG Mercedes C-Klasse), +13.879s
5. Martin Tomczyk (Red Bull Audi A4 DTM), +25.617s
6. Bruno Spengler (Mercedes-Benz Bank AMG C-Klasse), +37.762s
7. Tom Kristensen (Audi A4 DTM), +42.990s
8. Gary Paffett (AMG Mercedes C-Klasse), +1 lap