GARY Paffett won the fifth round of the 2005 DTM at Oschersleben.

The DaimlerChysler AMG-Mercedes driver, from Bromley, finished 3.1 seconds ahead of Mattias Ekström (Audi A4 DTM).

Jamie Green (Salzgitter AMG-Mercedes) ended up third ahead of Bernd Schneider (Vodafone AMG-Mercedes).

In the overall ranking, Paffett is second with 34 points behind Ekström with 35 points after five out of 11 races.

A crowd of 88,000 attended the event, more than in any other event at Oschersleben so far.

Starting fourth on the grid, Green accelerated into the lead between the Audis of Tom Kristensen and Martin Tomczyk, which were on the front row.

Paffett followed in third place and passed Tomczyk on the second lap to improve to second.

On lap 11 Green and Paffett pitted simultaneously. But Paffett's crew worked quicker and he took the lead when they were back on track.

On lap 31 Green left the racing line and Ekström slipped by. The order at the top of the field remained unchanged after that.

Schneider, 10th in qualifying, had an exciting battle with Kristensen in the closing stages. After 10 laps of a bumper-to-bumper fight Schneider finished fourth, half a second ahead of Kristensen.

Paffett said: "My start was good, but Jamie's was better. It was important for me to pass Tomczyk on lap two.

"Together with our team's fast pit stops this was the basis for my victory. Thanks to everybody, I'm really happy."