Pit stop perfection gifts Hakkinen fortuitous win.

Mika Hakkinen timed his pit stop to perfection on the way to a second DTM win of the season on the series' first visit to Mugello in eleven years, a victory that makes up for the disappointment of missing a podium at the Norisring under opposite circumstances.

A remarkable drive from 15th on the grid and coming after rivals Audi had utterly dominated up to that point, a conveniently timed safety car period pulled victory out the hands of long-time leader Mattias Ekstrom and awarded it to Hakkinen, a lead he held to the chequered flag.

The win comes after the Finn saw a podium at the previous round disappear when the safety car appeared with a pit stop still remaining to complete, plummeting him down the order and denying him a certain top three result.

A bitterly disappointing result for Audi in a race of attrition that saw only 11 of the 20-strong grid make the finish, Hakkinen's win makes it Mercedes' fifth victory of the season in six races.

The start of the race suggested Audi would be in for more of a struggle than qualifying had suggested after fourth place starting Timo Scheider was pushed off after a poor start. To make matters worse, within five laps he had been joined on the sidelines by Lucas Luhr and Vanina Ickx.

Still, Mercedes had a representative on the retirements list soon after the start with Jamie Green slid off on the fourth lap and ruined his hopes of a good result.

Ekstrom had led from pole position, ahead of team-mates Martin Tomczyk and Tom Kristensen, but with Mercedes following close behind, it seemed Audi wouldn't have the race their own way.

Even so, things went from bad to worse for Audi when both Mike Rockenfeller, running inside the top three at this point, and Christian Abt were given drive-through penalties that dropped them down the order. Kristensen's race was ruined soon after when a disastrous pit stop saw him return to the circuit in last place.

Still, Ekstrom was holding steady at the front of the field, ahead of Tomczyk, Bruno Spengler, a flying Paul di Resta, a recovering Rockenfeller and Bernd Schneider.

With the second round of pit stops approaching, Hakkinen, the former Formula 1 driver comfortably out of the points at this stage, was the first to dive into the pit lane. His keenness not to be caught out again was quickly rewarded when the safety car was deployed a lap later and allowed him to catch the tail of the field before each driver came in for another stop.

Leaping from last to first in one go, Hakkinen was in charge now, with Ekstrom a bitter second, with di Resta up to third ahead of Spengler, Daniel La Rosa, Rockenfeller, Markus Winkelhock and Alex Premat rounding out the points' positions.

More carnage was to follow though when Tomczyk, delayed heavily by having to wait for Ekstrom's pit-stop, spun on lap 17 and collected both Paffet and Abt, all three being forced to retire. When Mathias Lauda retired on lap 27 after a spin, just eleven cars would be destined to finish.

With the high-speed Tuscany circuit proving difficult to overtake on, Ekstrom was trying his hardest to find a way past a slower Hakkinen, but, try as he may, he had to settle for second place, a mere three tenths behind. Nonetheless, the Swede now leads the championship once again.

After a couple of dismal races, di Resta produced a fine drive to third place, a result that keeps him in the title hunt, while team-mates Spengler and La Rosa made it four Mercedes' in the top five on a weekend that had looked at one time to be an Audi walkover.

Instead, they had to be content with sixth, seventh and eighth to go with second, Rockenfeller leading Premat and Kristensen, the Dane scoring a frustrated point having looked on course for a podium.

Winkelhock was ninth on his debut in the Futurecom TME Audi, ahead of Susie Stoddart and Bernd Schneider, the erstwhile championship leader enduring a bad pit stop before struggling to get back in touch with those ahead.