Jamie Green took his first victory of 2011 in the final DTM race of the season at Hockenheim.
From the front row, the British driver out-dragged polesitter Miguel Molina into the first corner, and was never challenged throughout the rest of the 38-lap race.
By lap five, the HWA Mercedes man was already 2.5sec clear, and he increased his lead to as much as 7sec before the end to take the seventh win of his DTM career and the first since last year's Norisring race.
New champion Martin Tomczyk made the best start of all from the second row, but failed in his attempts to squeeze between Green and Molina into the first corner. The Phoenix Audi driver did pass Molina's similar 2008-spec A4 for second into the Spitzkehre on the opening lap, but was unable to mount a challenge to Green and finished second.
Molina was the first of the Abt drivers home in third and became the first Spaniard to finish on a DTM podium in the process. Mike Rockenfeller had a slow first stint, prompting the Abt driver to be the first man to stop for fuel and tires when the pit window opened on lap 10. His strategy kept him ahead of his teammate Timo Scheider, who pitted a lap later.
Gary Paffett, who stopped at the same time as Rockenfeller, used his extra lap on fresh Hankook tires to get alongside Scheider as the German exited the pits, and, after going round the outside of his rival at Turn 2, used the inside line as they entered the long back straight, to pull ahead. Paffett closed his HWA Mercedes right onto Rockenfeller's tail, but could not relieve him of fourth spot.
Scheider was passed with eight laps to go by his teammate Mattias Ekstrom, the Swede having climbed up from 10th on the grid to take a sixth spot that helped him secure second place in the championship, ahead of Bruno Spengler.
Spengler ran wide at the Mercedes Arena on the opening lap, dropping from seventh to ninth, and was unable to climb any higher during the race. Between Ekstrom and the Canadian were Scheider and Oliver Jarvis.
David Coulthard finished a lap down after sliding into his right-front tire man at his first pit stop, while Christian Vietoris retired his Persson Mercedes due to a problem with the right front of his car shortly after his first stop.
Results - 38 laps:
Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap
1. Jamie Green HWA Mercedes 1h00m45.734s
2. Martin Tomczyk Phoenix Audi + 7.620s
3. Miguel Molina Abt Audi + 10.142s
4. Mike Rockenfeller Abt Audi + 22.486s
5. Gary Paffett HWA Mercedes + 23.985s
6. Mattias Ekstrom Abt Audi + 24.418s
7. Timo Scheider Abt Audi + 32.358s
8. Oliver Jarvis Abt Audi + 32.840s
9. Bruno Spengler HWA Mercedes + 33.201s
10. Filipe Albuquerque Rosberg Audi + 34.967s
11. Ralf Schumacher HWA Mercedes + 36.068s
12. Renger van der Zande Persson Mercedes + 42.319s
13. Edoardo Mortara Rosberg Audi + 46.307s
14. Maro Engel Mucke Mercedes + 46.772s
15. Susie Wolff Persson Mercedes + 54.523s
16. Rahel Frey Phoenix Audi + 1m02.122s
17. David Coulthard Mucke Mercedes + 1 lap
Retirements:
Christian Vietoris Persson Mercedes 10 laps