Ekstrom wins at Adria

The Audi ace converted pole position into a first lap lead, and only lost the lead briefly during the pitstop cycle. Christijan Albers, who made a great start from third in his Mercedes, gave chase but did not have an answer to the speedy Swede, who took his first DTM win in almost two seasons.

"I made a good start and looked in my mirror and saw three Mercedes," said Ekstrom. "For the first three corners it was very tight, but from then on it was never really close."

Albers finished second, despite giving best to team-mate Jean Alesi for a time after the second round of pitstops. The Frenchman had brake trouble, however, and waved Albers past.

Albers said: "Maybe I drove too long on the first set of tyres. I set good times but stopped too late, which allowed Jean to get ahead and lost me time to Mattias."

Despite his problems, Alesi finished third after pressure from another AMG Merc, that of Hockenheim winner Gary Paffett. Timo Scheider was the top Opel home in fifth, ahead of Laurent Aiello, who finished sixth from 20th on the grid. Britain's Peter Dumbreck went out early, his Opel beached in the gravel after some early collisions around him.

Mattias Ekstrom, Audi A4, 47 laps
Christijan Albers, Mercedes C-Class, +3.156s
Jean Alesi, Mercedes C-Class, +10.198s
Gary Paffett, Mercedes C-Class, +14.294s
Timo Scheider, Opel Vectra GTS, +24.003s
Laurent Aiello, Opel Vectra GTS, +28.140s