Jamie Green takes crucial victory and ignites the championship battle

Jamie Green took a decisive third victory of the season at Hockenheim to close the gap to championship leader and fellow Audi driver Mattias Ekström, who wasn’t able to score any points. The pair are now separated by just nine points heading into the final race of the season.

At the start, BMW’s Timo Glock made his pole position count to hold the lead ahead of Audi’s Jamie Green, who overtook Maxime Martin’s BMW.

On lap six, Green went side-by-side with Glock, overtaking for first at the Mercedes Kurve but went wide, with Glock retaking the position. The pair continued to battle, with Glock going wide at Turn 10. Green was given a warning for the manoeuvre, his fifth of the season, whih means Green will take a ten-place grid drop tomorrow as a result. The Briton managed to overtake and take the lead on the following lap, soon opening the gap to Glock.

Further back, Mercedes’ Edoardo Mortara, who had gained a position at the start, closed the gap to Martin, and overtook him for third place on lap eight.

Mercedes’ Lucas Auer pitted at the end of lap ten, and the Austrian undercut Ekström and had a battle with Audi’s Nico Müller, soon overtaking the Swiss who then let his Audi team-mate straight through.

Ekström soon was given a warning for ean earlier incident where he forced the Mercedes of Maro Engel off of the track, and as this is the third warning for the Swede, he will have a five-position grid drop penalty tomorrow.

Green pitted from the lead at the end of lap 14 and exited the pit lane with enough advantage to keep the race lead ahead of Glock. Behind the BMW, Edo Mortara was struggling to heat up his tyres, and soon lost third place to Martin.

BMW’s Tom Blomqvist was in the lead having not yet taken his mandatory pit stop. Green slowly closed the gap, overtaking to Briton for lead of the race at the hairpin on lap 28.

Audi’s Mike Rockenfeller had pitted at the end of lap 23 and was significantly faster than the cars ahead of him. By lap 33, the 2013 champion was fourth and closing the gap to Martin, taking third place at the hairpin. A lap later, BMW’s Bruno Spengler overtook Ekström for tenth place, which saw the Swede drop out of the points.

The Audi driver continued closing the gap to Glock, and made a move on the outside at the hairpin on the last lap and kept enough momentum at the exit to gain the position.

At the chequered flag, Green took his third victory of the year, followed by Rockenfeller and Glock on the podium.

Martin was fourth, followed by Mortara and Rast, who managed to keep ahead of Wickens in the last stages of the race. Auer was eighth, followed team-mate Gary Paffett. Spengler closed the top ten, with Ekström finishing in 11th place.

The Swede continues to lead the championship on 172 points, with Green now nine points behind. Rast is third with a 14-point deficit, followed by Rockenfeller, who is still in contention with 152 points. Both Mercedes driver Luca Auer and reigning champion Marco Wittmann are now out of the championship battle, meaning the championship battle is between four Audi drivers.

The DTM is back on track tomorrow at 9:00 CET for the third and final free practice.