Bruno Spengler took his second win of the season, dominating the race at the Nürburgring and moves up to second in the drivers’ championship, as points leader Gary Paffett crosses the line in sixth.
Spengler had a great start and held the lead into the first corner, whilst Filipe Albuquerque stalled from third on the grid and was lucky to be avoided by the cars behind – most notably Martin Tomczyk, who was able to move into fourth position in the BMW Team RMG M3.
Susie Wolff was a first lap casualty in her Persson Motorsport Mercedes, spun out courtesy of the domino effect as team-mate Roberto Merhi ran into her, after he in turn was hit by David Coulthard in the Mücke Motorsport-run Mercedes C-Coupé.
During the following laps, Adrian Tambay in the Audi Sport Abt A5 spun Phoenix Racing’s Miguel Molina’s Audi around, and then HWA Mercedes-driver Christian Vietoris also make contact with Andy Priaulx’s BMW Team RBM M3, spinning the three-time WTCC champion down the order. Both Tambay and Vietoris would serve drive through penalties, which dropped them well out of contention for points.
Roberto Merhi was the first to retire from the race, pulling into the pits on lap eight – with Adrian Tambay the only other driver to retire from the race, stopping soon after his first pit stop.
After the first round of pit stops, Martin Tomczyk was able to pass Mike Rockenfeller’s Phoenix Racing Audi A5 for what was effectively third place after the pit-stop sequence was completed. The leading Mercedes driver was Jamie Green, who opted to take his second stop early on lap 19, which meant he would have to complete 30 laps on the same set of tyres.
The strategy paid off as Green emerged in fourth position ahead of Mike Rockenfeller when the German took his final stop on lap 27.
Rahel Frey waited the longest to switch to her second set of tyres in her Audi Sport Team Abt A5, and rejoined just behind Ralf Schumacher’s HWA Mercedes. The two battled for 13th position for the remainder of the race, with Schumacher coming out on top.
Up at the front, there was no stopping Spengler, who pulled out more than a six second lead on Edoardo Mortara to take his second win of the season, and the second for BMW.
Spengler’s win leaps him past Jamie Green in the standings and into second place, 20 points behind Gary Paffett, who recovered from 11th on the grid to pick up points in sixth.
The next round of the DTM is at Zandvoort in the Netherlands next weekend on August 26th.
