Jamie Green and Mattias Ekström receive grid penalties for Hockenheim Race 2

Audi Sport drivers and the two leading championship contenders Jamie Green and Mattias Ekström have had grid drop penalties confirmed for the last race of the season tomorrow.

Green won today at Hockenheim, whilst Ekström finished out of the points, with the Briton reducing the gap in the championship to nine points with 28 still in play.

The two title contenders have misdemeanour related penalties however after today’s race. Ekström was in a battle with Mercedes’ Maro Engel on lap 12, with both making contact with the German going over the kerbs as a result. The stewards deemed the Swede responsible for forcing Engel off of the track, issuing a warning to the Audi driver. As this is the third for Ekström this season, the Swede will have a five-place grid drop tomorrow.

“I suppose that if they have given me a warning it’s because it’s true that I forced another driver out,” Ekström said to TouringCarTimes. “In any case, the strategy for tomorrow is to push forward, qualify well and get a good result.”

Audi Sport boss Dieter Gass expressed doubts about Ekström’s penalty: “I didn’t know you force a driver out of the track when his car is still on the track, but this is how the drivers wanted to define this penalty, so I’ve got nothing to say.”

Jamie Green was involved in a side-by-side battle for the lead with BMW’s Timo Glock on lap six, with the German driver also going off the track at Turn 10.

“To be honest, I did force him out of the track,” Green said. “That’s why I lifted off and let him come back ahead of me.”

“I didn’t know that I had got a warning until I got out of the car, and I’m now discovering that I have a ten-place grid drop for tomorrow. This is going from good news straight to bad news and makes things more difficult, of course. In any case, I want to savour this moment and will think later about tomorrow.”

Ekström leads the standings on 172 points, with Green nine points behind. Audi drivers René Rast and Mike Rockenfeller are 13 and 20 points adrift respectively and are the only other drivers in contention for the title.