Martin Tomczyk produced a masterful performance in wet conditions at Brands Hatch to take his third DTM win of the year and retake the lead of the championship from Bruno Spengler.
After dropping as low as fifth, the Phoenix Audi driver took advantage of contact between Edoardo Mortara and Gary Paffett to leapfrog both exiting Graham Hill bend on the second lap. He then passed Abt Audi drivers Mattias Ekstrom and Mike Rockenfeller in separate moves at Clearways to move into the lead on lap 10. After that he was unchallenged at the front and won by two seconds.
Ekstrom had made a rocket start to move up from fifth to second, and after moving ahead of poleman Rockenfeller when the German made a small error and went wide exiting Graham Hill bend, began his pursuit of Tomczyk.
The closest he came to the older-spec A4 came after the second of two mandatory pit stops, when a quick tyre change and refuel helped him reduce his deficit from 4.7sec to 1.2, but Tomczyk always seemed to have a little in reserve to counter whatever the Swede could throw at him.
Behind them, Rockenfeller had an incident-filled race. First he lost third spot to Mortara at Paddock – allowing the Rosberg Audi driver to pull away to his first podium finish – and then he took a trip across the grass at Surtees when the rain was at its heaviest. He was later spun by Ralf Schumacher at Graham Hill bend midway through the race, dropping him back into a battle for sixth spot with Spengler's HWA Mercedes during the latter stages.
Despite Spengler's best efforts from eighth on the grid, he not get close enough to mount an attack on Rockenfeller and settled for seventh – a result that leaves him a point behind Tomczyk in the championship with three races to go. Paffett and Schumacher finished fourth and fifth ahead of them in their HWA cars.
Jamie Green had a torrid race in front of his home crowd, the Mercedes man having a slow getaway from fourth and then having a trip through the gravel at Paddock plus a spin at Clark during the early stages to drop him back to 12th. He recovered well, though, closing onto the tail of Oliver Jarvis' Abt Audi late on and snatching eighth place and the final point into Paddock on the penultimate lap.
Results - 88 laps:
Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap
1. Martin Tomczyk Phoenix Audi 1h15m37.956s
2. Mattias Ekstrom Abt Audi + 2.023s
3. Edoardo Mortara Rosberg Audi + 11.723s
4. Gary Paffett HWA Mercedes + 14.136s
5. Ralf Schumacher HWA Mercedes + 20.395s
6. Mike Rockenfeller Abt Audi + 36.087s
7. Bruno Spengler HWA Mercedes + 38.586s
8. Jamie Green HWA Mercedes + 42.698s
9. Oliver Jarvis Abt Audi + 46.941s
10. Maro Engel Mucke Mercedes + 48.473s
11. Filipe Albuquerque Rosberg Audi + 1 lap
12. David Coulthard Mucke Mercedes + 1 lap
13. Christian Vietoris Persson Mercedes + 1 lap
14. Susie Stoddart Persson Mercedes + 1 lap
15. Renger van der Zande Persson Mercedes + 1 lap
16. Timo Scheider Abt Audi + 3 laps
17. Rahel Frey Phoenix Audi + 20 laps
Retirements:
Miguel Molina Abt Audi 8 laps