Paul di Resta took his first DTM victory of the season in dominant fashion at Brands Hatch. The Scot blasted out of the blocks into a commanding lead in the early laps, pulling away at half a second a lap for a while. He got the lead up to 13 seconds by half distance, before backing off and bringing his Mercedes home in the closing stages.
Championship leader Bruno Spengler was happy to take a solid second place, but the Canadian was never a threat to team-mate di Resta. He came under pressure at times from Timo Scheider, but the lead Audi lacked the pace he needed to mount a proper challenge in the final stint of the race.
Scheider ended up coming under pressure from the 2008-spec Audi of Miguel Molina in the closing stages. The Spaniard ran outside of the points early on, but he used an alternative strategy to make up an impressive amount of ground.
Molina stayed out much longer than the rest of the frontrunners before both of his mandatory stops. His middle stint was particularly strong, and it enabled him to jump Gary Paffett, Oliver Jarvis and Martin Tomczyk to take fourth.
Paffett struggled for pace for the majority of the 98 laps, while Jarvis did well to sustain pressure from Tomczyk to the end.
The points-scorers were completed by Alexandre Premat, who just managed to stay ahead of Mike Rockenfeller after the second round of stops to take eighth.
Two frontrunners to hit trouble were Mattias Ekstrom and Ralf Schumacher. The pair collided on the first lap, which damaged Ekstrom's Audi. The Swede continued for a handful of laps, but he then slowed and was collected by Susie Stoddart, ending both of their races.
Schumacher raced on for a little longer, but he came unto the pits to retire after running through the gravel trap at Paddock Hill bend.