Lausitzring DTM: Marco Wittmann takes title as Pascal Wehrlein wins

Wehrlein had the most straightforward of races, charging into the lead from pole position before breaking away at almost a second a lap for the first 10 laps of the race in tricky drying conditions.

With that lead established, and with Christian Vietoris playing rear-gunner in second, the Mercedes driver could shadow the strategy of others, switching from wets to the option tyre on lap 29, before cruising to a 15.4s win.

"Amazing day, amazing weekend, amazing week," said the 19-year-old. "It was impressive, our pace in qualifying and the race. I could control the race."

Vietoris, who started back in 11th, did all of his hard work at the start and in the opening handful of laps. By lap five he was second, a position he held on to until the finish, despite some late pressure from Timo Scheider.

It should have been an all-Mercedes podium.

Daniel Juncadella was another driver to make a fantastic start, initally running second before settling into third. However, a drive-through penalty for not respecting yellow flags forced Juncadella to settle for fourth, gifting third to Audi's Scheider.

Robert Wickens, who also served a drive-through for the same violation as Juncadella, finished fifth, capping off Mercedes' excellent afternoon.

Wittmann, meanwhile, took a solid sixth, having spent most of the afternoon expertly keeping out of the way of people trying to barge past him.

His life was made significantly easier right at the start, when his two title rivals made crucial mistakes - for Mattias Ekstrom, the mistake was a poor start that dropped him into the midfield, while Edoardo Mortara gambled on slick tyres, a call that didn't pay off.

The title was then sealed when Audi failed to properly fit Ekstrom's front-left wheel during his stop, leaving him out of the race, and handing the title straight to Wittmann.

"To achieve this is something really special for me," said the new champion. "I'm proud of it, and proud of my team. All the thanks to BMW for that."

Augusto Farfus came from 20th on the grid to finish seventh, ahead of Miguel Molina and Martin Tomczyk, who finished ninth after starting last, and being spun mid-race by Jamie Green.

Outgoing champion Mike Rockenfeller rounded out the top 10, but it was a miserable afternoon for the Brits in the field.

Gary Paffett failed to live up to his qualifying pace and finished 13th after an action-packed afternoon in the midfield, while Jamie Green had frontrunning speed but finished 17th after spinning three times and serving a drive-through for hitting Tomczyk during his third and final trip facing the wrong direction.

Paul di Resta almost had a brilliant race, moving his way from near the back to sixth place - before running wide while scrapping with Wittmann and immediately retiring from the race.

Results - 52 laps:

Pos  Driver                  Team/Car            Time/Gap
 1.  Pascal Wehrlein         HWA Mercedes    1h15m47.314s
 2.  Christian Vietoris      HWA Mercedes        +15.418s
 3.  Timo Scheider           Phoenix Audi        +15.681s
 4.  Daniel Juncadella       Mucke Mercedes      +18.024s
 5.  Robert Wickens          HWA Mercedes        +32.677s
 6.  Marco Wittmann          RMG BMW             +48.435s
 7.  Augusto Farfus          RBM BMW           +1m02.380s
 8.  Martin Tomczyk          Schnitzer BMW     +1m07.705s
 9.  Miguel Molina           Abt Audi          +1m08.719s
10.  Mike Rockenfeller       Phoenix Audi      +1m13.480s
11.  Joey Hand               RBM BMW           +1m14.734s
12.  Vitaly Petrov           Mucke Mercedes    +1m19.199s
13.  Gary Paffett            HWA Mercedes          -1 lap
14.  Maxime Martin           RMG BMW               -1 lap
15.  Bruno Spengler          Schnitzer BMW        -2 laps
16.  Edoardo Mortara         Abt Audi             -2 laps

Retirements:

     Jamie Green             Rosberg Audi         48 laps
     Adrien Tambay           Abt Audi             41 laps
     Paul di Resta           HWA Mercedes         38 laps
     Mattias Ekstrom         Abt Audi             26 laps
     Timo Glock              MTEK BMW             19 laps
     Nico Muller             Rosberg Audi         14 laps
     Antonio Felix da Costa  MTEK BMW              6 laps

CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS: