Gary Paffett was critical of Mattias Ekström and Nico Müller for ‘brake testing’ him in the closing stages of the second DTM race at Zandvoort, preventing the Brit from finishing higher than sixth.
Paffett started the race on the back row of the grid in 17th after receiving a penalty when he was deemed to have used an ‘unallocated set of tyres’ in qualifying for race two.
Undeterred, the Brit got off to a superb start in race two to end the first lap in 12th place and get himself up to ninth by lap two.
That set up Paffett for yet another points finish – his tenth of the season – as he emerged after the pit-stop phase running in sixth position.
“That was a mega race for me from P17 on the grid,” said Paffett. “We didn’t expect much after the disqualification, but we had a great strategy.
“I pushed when I needed to and did my utmost to get past Augusto [Farfus]. I pulled off a great pass on the outside of Turn 1 and went up into sixth place, which was mega.”
Paffett ended up stuck behind the Audi’s of the struggling Ekström and his rear-guard Müller, with the former champion being particularly critical of Ekström for the way in which he hindered Paffett on the penultimate lap of the race.
“Towards the end, the two Audis of Ekström and Müller were struggling, and Müller was blocking me the whole race to help Eki.
“I overtook him on the outside of Turn 1, and then Eki just brake tested me out of the corner, and he did the same out of Turn 2 to let Nico back in.
“That’ s not fair and I’m pretty disappointed with that move.”
Paffett, Audi’s Jamie Green and the top two drivers in the championship, are the only drivers to have scored points in 10 of the 12 races in the 2017 season so far. The Mercedes driver leaves The Netherlands ninth overall in the drivers’ championship with 73 points.