Green beats Spengler to Norisring win

The British driver had snatched the lead from Spengler at the start, and from then on the gap between the two was never more than three seconds.

Spengler, Mattias Ekstrom and Timo Scheider all closed in on Green in the closing stages, with the top four all covered by one second 20 laps from the end of the 74-lap race.

Despite the constant pressure, Green didn't put a foot wrong on track. He had a brief scare at his second pitstop though, when he pulled away with a fuel can still attached, before it fell off as he braked for Turn 1.

Spengler had to settle for second ahead of Scheider, who grabbed third from Ekstrom on the final corner of the last lap as the Swede locked up under braking.

That pass ensured that Scheider maintains the championship lead, although his advantage is just now one point over Green.

Behind the leaders, Gary Paffett put in a charging performance to take fifth in his one-year-old car, coming out on top after a long battle with Tom Kristensen, who later dropped back to eighth.

Paul di Resta had to settle for sixth after a spin at the first corner while running third early on, and behind him in seventh was Bernd Schneider.

Ralf Schumacher seemed set for a personal best DTM finish of ninth until four laps from the end, when he spun at the first corner with an apparent brake failure. His retirement handed the place to Mathias Lauda, while Maro Engel completed the top 10.

Pos  Driver             Car       Time
 1.  Jamie Green        Mercedes  1h01:27.700
 2.  Bruno Spengler     Mercedes     +  0.467
 3.  Timo Scheider      Audi         +  2.191
 4.  Mattias Ekstrom    Audi         +  2.536
 5.  Gary Paffett       Mercedes     + 14.402
 6.  Paul Di Resta      Mercedes     + 18.026
 7.  Bernd Schneider    Mercedes     + 19.577
 8.  Tom Kristensen     Audi         + 23.040
 9.  Mathias Lauda      Mercedes     + 32.168
10.  Maro Engel         Mercedes     + 33.578
11.  Susie Stoddart     Mercedes     + 37.660
12.  Markus Winkelhock  Audi         + 43.684
13.  Oliver Jarvis      Audi         + 47.264
14.  Mike Rockenfeller  Audi         +  1 lap
15.  Alexandre Premat   Audi         +  1 lap
16.  Katherine Legge    Audi         + 2 laps
17.  Ralf Schumacher    Mercedes     + 5 laps

Not classified:

     Driver             Car       Laps
     Christijan Albers  Audi      31
     Martin Tomczyk     Audi      23