Paffett wins as Scheider retains title
Gary Paffett took victory in the final DTM race of the season, while his title rival Timo Scheider sealed the crown by following him across the line in second
After a fierce scrap with Mattias Ekstrom in the opening stages, Paffett took the lead when the Audi driver retired after five laps with cooling issues caused by damage that Ekstrom sustained during their battle.
Scheider then followed his rival for the entire race, deciding not to go for the race win as he didn't need it to retain the championship.
Behind the top two, Paul di Resta was a close second, but the Scot was unable to give Scheider many problems throughout the race.
Alexandre Premat used the pitstops well to gain several places, and at times the French driver was the fastest man on track.
That got him ahead of a fierce midfield battle, which was eventually resolved in Jamie Green's favour in the closing stages.
The Briton was following the scrap between Oliver Jarvis and Bruno Spengler, and when the pair tangled in the Mercedes Arena as Jarvis made a pass on lap 37, Green was able to pass both of them.
Spengler had done well to come through from 15th on the grid to get into the points, but he eventually had to settle for seventh, just ahead of Markus Winkelhock who took the final points position.
The German was another driver to be muscled down the order in the closing stages. He'd spent most of the race scrapping with Jarvis, but he lost ground when both his Audi team-mate and Jamie Green were able to pass him at the hairpin on lap 30.
Pos Driver Car Result 1. Gary Paffett Mercedes 1h06m01.702s 2. Timo Scheider Audi + 1.043s 3. Paul Di Resta Mercedes + 1.792s 4. Alexandre Prémat Audi + 5.234s 5. Jamie Green Mercedes + 5.994s 6. Oliver Jarvis Audi + 7.737s 7. Bruno Spengler Mercedes + 8.664s 8. Markus Winkelhock Audi + 9.847s 9. Mike Rockenfeller Audi + 10.355s 10. Maro Engel Mercedes + 11.009s 11. Tomas Kostka Audi + 16.744s 12. Christian Bakkerud Audi + 20.574s 13. Johannes Seidlitz Audi + 23.587s 14. Mathias Lauda Mercedes + 41.679s 15. Tom Kristensen Audi + 2m23.250s 16. Susie Stoddart Mercedes + 8 laps 17. Katherine Legge Audi + 9 laps Retirements Mattias Ekström Audi 5 laps Ralf Schumacher Mercedes 1 laps Martin Tomczyk Audi 0 laps
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