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Martin Tomczyk says losing Norisring DTM race to Jamie Green at last corner was extremely painful

DTM champion Martin Tomczyk has described his last-lap defeat to Jamie Green at last Sunday's Norisring race as 'the worst thing that could have happened'

The 30-year-old German held the lead at the Nuremberg street track for over 60 laps in damp conditions after dodging first corner chaos and taking advantage of an electrical glitch for early pace-setter Ralf Schumacher.

But Green showed tremendous pace during the final quarter of the race on a drying circuit and passed the BMWs of Schnitzer driver Bruno Spengler before overtaking Tomczyk's RMG-run machine at the very last corner.

Tomczyk, who had been on course for his first win since switching from Audi to BMW during the winter, and would also have given the RMG squad its maiden victory in any form of motorsport, said that missing out was a terrible feeling.

"It's such a shame to lead a race until lap 75 and then lose it on the last corner," he said. "You drive however many laps with maximum concentration in those weather conditions, and then to lose it so late... It's the worst thing that could have happened."

Tomczyk said that he would have made life more difficult for Mercedes driver Green had he known that he was on the last lap of the race.

The event was originally scheduled to run to 82 laps, but bad weather and a spell behind the safety car meant that the 75-minute time limit was due to expire short of that distance.

Green's win, which came after 78 laps, was just 0.005 seconds beyond the time limit, leading Tomczyk and his team to believe in the seconds leading up to the finish that there would still be another lap left.

"If I'd known we were on the last lap, I'd have defended harder from Jamie," Tomczyk added. "I got different information from my team. My pitboard said 11 laps to go, and on the radio it was five to go, and it turned out to be only four..."

Tomczyk's result moved him up a spot to fourth in the championship. He is now only four points behind Spengler, the best-placed BMW driver in standings.

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