Main race: Maylander inherits victory

Huisman, who had won the qualification race, was in full command of the early exchanges, pulling away from Maylander who had repelled an early attack from the AMG Mercedes of Peter Dumbreck.

The leading Opel of Michael Bartels slipped down the order when he was muscled aside at the start, but Team Holzer colleague Timo Scheider took full advantage to hold fourth.

Uwe Alzen went off trying to pass Mattias Ekstrom's Audi at the Mobil kurve, allowing Bartels back up to fourth when Scheider's power steering servo failed, forcing him out. Ekstrom, who was delayed in the Alzen attack, then hampered his chances even more by stalling in the pits.

The pits was where the race was lost for Huisman. His left rear refused to go on, and he was stuck there for 26secs, losing all hope of victory.

That allowed Maylander into the lead, and he didn't look back, as second placed Dumbreck was unable to do anything about his lead on his second set of tyres.

During the pit stop cycle, Darren Turner actually took the lead in his year-old Team Rosberg Mercedes, but promptly spun at the first chicane. He dropped to eighth by the end, but the spin probably cost him a top-five finish.

Alzen and Bartels collided after their pit stops, after which Bartels was given a stop/go penalty for speeding in the pits, dropping him to 12th.

All eyes were now on a charging Manuel Reuter, who battled his way up from 11th on the grid. He pulled off one of the overtaking maneouvres of the season on Alzen to take fourth at the Sachskurve, with contact aplenty as he bullied his way past one of the most uncompromising drivers out there.

Alzen was further delayed when the frustrated Huisman barged into him at Mobil, which left the Dutchman in the gravel trap. Uwe, meanwhile, recovered to finish seventh.

Reuter then caught up with third placed Schneider, who started from the back after his qualification race off and stalked his way through the order in typical style, but just failed to pass the champion on the line by 0.229s.

All in all, not a bad end to a cracking season.

For full race results click here.

For the complete championship standings click here.