Norisring DTM: Gotz wins title after Mercedes imposes team orders 

Despite Lawson running outside the top 10 after being hit by Kelvin van der Linde at the start, his buffer in the championship standings' was enough to clinch the title by seven points as the race reached its final stages.

But with less than a handful of laps to run, Mercedes asked both long-time race leader Lucas Auer and Philip Ellis to let Gotz through and take the win, with the two extra places he gained helping the German to sensationally snatch the title by three points from Lawson.

In a repeat of Saturday's opening encounter, van der Linde tried to dive past polesitter Lawson under braking for Turn 2 - this time by taking the inside line into the hairpin.

But the two drivers came to blows at the apex, with van der Linde running deep into the corner and leaving both AF Corse Ferraris of Lawson and Alex Albon's stand-in Nick Cassidy wide.

The Kiwi duo had to wait for the rest of the field to pass by before they could reverse their cars, dropping to the rear of the pack and without a chance to mount a fightback.

To make matters worse, Lawson reported a broken steering that forced him to make several unscheduled pitstops, before rejoining the track with a car that was lapping 20 seconds off the outright pace.

With Lawson out of the running and van der Linde losing time in the incident, Auer seized the lead from fourth on the grid as Ellis moved up to second to establish a Winward Mercedes 1-2.

Heading into the final laps of the race, Auer sat a comfortable six-second clear of Ellis, with Gotz running some way behind in third.

But in a remarkable late twist, both Auer and Ellis slowed down to let Gotz through, with the German driver taking the lead on lap 64 of 67 to clinch the title.

Maximilian Götz, Haupt Racing Team with Maximilian Buhk, Mücke Motorsport and Vincent Abril, Haupt Racing Team

Photo by: Alexander Trienitz

The results means Mercedes has won both the drivers' and the manufacturers' championship on its return to the DTM, with only the Red Bull / AF Corse team denying it a clean sweep of titles.

Auer was eventually classified second, having relinquished what could have been a third victory in as many rounds.

A five-second penalty for a pitstop infringement and a collision with Cassidy demoted Ellis to 10th, and lifted the Mucke Mercedes of Maximilian Buhk to the final spot on the podium.

Abt Sportsline's Mike Rockenfeller was classified fourth in his last DTM appearance as an Audi driver, the only non-Mercedes driver in a top six completed by GruppeM's Daniel Juncadella and GetSpeed's Arjun Maini, while Walkenhorst driver Marco Wittmann was classified seventh in the farewell DTM outing for the BMW M6.

The top 10 was rounded out by HRT's Vincent Abril, the Abt Audi of Sophia Floersch and Ellis.

Van der Linde slipped outside of the points and finished down in 17th after picking up a late puncture, likely after contact with Gotz while battling for third position.

Gotz was trying to take advantage of van der Linde's cold tyres, but the Audi driver cut across the track coming out of Turn 7 - leading to the two drivers making contact.

A heartbroken Lawson limped home 24 laps down in 18th.

Race results:

Cla	Driver	Car	Gap
1	Maximilian Götz	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo
2	Lucas Auer	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	0.869
3	Maximilian Buhk	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	5.339
4	Mike Rockenfeller	Audi R8 LMS Evo	6.395
5	Daniel Juncadella	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	9.310
6	Arjun Maini	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	12.012
7	Marco Wittmann	BMW M6 GT3	15.932
8	Vincent Abril	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	17.811
9	Sophia Flörsch	Audi R8 LMS Evo	22.657
10	Philip Ellis	Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo	24.700
11	Timo Glock	BMW M6 GT3	24.974
12	Lucas di Grassi	Audi R8 LMS Evo	41.792
13	Nick Cassidy	Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020	1 Lap
14	Dev Gore	Audi R8 LMS Evo	1 Lap
15	Nico Müller	Audi R8 LMS Evo	1 Lap
16	Sheldon Van Der Linde	BMW M6 GT3	1 Lap
17	Kelvin van der Linde	Audi R8 LMS Evo	1 Lap
18	Liam Lawson	Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020	24 Laps
19	Esmee Hawkey	Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo	37 Laps
20	Esteban Muth	BMW M6 GT3	66 Laps
View full results