Mattias Ekstrom converted pole position into his first DTM victory of the year with a dominant performance at the Nurburgring.
The Swede got away well when the red lights went out at the start and was never seriously challenged during the 49-lap race, which was horrendously short on action and passing.
Behind Ekstrom – whose five-second victory was the 15th of his career – his Abt teammate Mike Rockenfeller and Mercedes driver Bruno Spengler ended the opening lap separated by 0.5sec in second and third and were rarely any further apart as the race wore on. Spengler kept the pressure up and gleefully accepted second place when Rockenfeller locked up and slid wide when entering Turn 1 on the penultimate lap. The Canadian's result increased his slender championship lead to seven points.
The battle for the next four places was a tight one between the old-spec Audis of Edoardo Mortara and Martin Tomczyk, Timo Scheider's newer Abt machine and Jamie Green's HWA Mercedes. Green, Mortara and Tomczyk all made contact as the field bunched together through the complex on the opening lap, with Tomczyk also causing himself visible front end damage after nudging the back of Miguel Molina's Abt car into the hairpin early on.
The net result was that the Phoenix driver – Spengler's closest title rival – dropped to seventh early on behind Mortara's Team Rosberg car, Scheider and Green, although he did make it up to fourth by being the first of the group to pit on lap 12. He held the position through the second round of stops, but Scheider's car was handling better on his final set of tires and the two-time series champion made it past at the hairpin for fourth on what was his first flying lap on new rubber.
Green – who made a bad start from the front row – finished sixth, ahead of Mortara and Gary Paffett, who did well to score the final point after starting back in 13th. Filipe Albuquerque (Rosberg) and Oliver Jarvis (Abt) completed the top 10.
Ralf Schumacher was the only driver to retire, the HWA man being hit by fellow ex-F1 racer David Coulthard's Mucke Mercedes at Turn 2 on the second lap after the German had tagged the Brit at the previous corner. Coulthard was forced to pit for a new nose and lost a lap as a result.