Augusto Farfus victory denies Mike Rockenfeller at Oschersleben

BMW’s Augusto Farfus won at Oschersleben, denying second place finisher, Audi’s Mike Rockenfeller, the chance to claim the 2013 DTM title.

On a day where Rockenfeller needed his title rivals to finish out of the points, all managed to falter, apart from Farfus who took his second victory of the year.

Farfus reduced Rockenfeller’s lead to 33 points from 35, but a second place finish for the Phoenix Audi driver in either of the next two races will assure him the drivers’ title.

Farfus also moved up to second in the drivers’ standings with 91 points, 20 ahead of Christian Vietoris in third.

Jamie Green took the final step on the podium, scoring his first top-three finish as an Audi driver since he switched from Mercedes for 2013.

Farfus, who started second, managed to get the jump on Green at the start and started to extend his lead over the Abt Audi driver in the early stages of the race.

Meanwhile, Rockenfeller, who was passed at the start by Spengler for third, optimised a standard-option-standard strategy with an early stop on the fifth lap.

Despite dropping back in the pack as a result of the stop, the strategy allowed for Rockenfeller to fight back to second in clean air, and finished 6.3 seconds behind Farfus.

Filipe Albuquerque finished fourth and scored his first points of the year.

Similarly, Timo Scheider took his best result of the year with fifth after a long middle stint.

Bruno Spengler’s title challenge came to a halt after he tangled with compatriot Robert Wickens.

The pair were battling over the final points position, with the BMW and Mercedes touching a handful of times going into the first corner.

The final contact came on lap 37 , when the pair came together going into Turn 2. Wickens ended up in the barrier and broke his suspension, whereas Spengler damaged his car so severely, his bonnet set itself free a lap later.

Wickens retired on lap 39, with Spengler pulling his Schnitzer BMW into his pit garage on lap 40.

Following his third successive non-score, Spengler is now fifth in the championship on 67 points, two ahead of Gary Paffett.

The Briton finished sixth on his 100th DTM start, making himself the only Mercedes driver to score points.

Edoardo Mortara made it eight Audis in the top-10 after a strong drive from 17th on the grid.