Bruno Spengler took his third
DTM win of the year around Oscherleben's Motorsport Arena to move within eleven points of championship leader Gary Paffett, who followed home in second position.
Spengler, who started from pole-position in his Schnitzer-run BMW M3, immediately began to ease his way to a four second cushion ahead of title rival Paffett, who in his Mercedes didn't have an answer to the Canadian's pace.
The Brit, however, did close to within six-tenths of a second to the BMW man but couldn't position his HWA-run Mercedes close enough to trouble the eventual winner.
Spengler's victory moves him up into second position in the standings with two rounds to go and 50 points still on the table.
Fellow championship candidate Jamie Green took the last step on the rostrum following an uneventful drive to third. The Brit is now demoted to P3 in the overall standings as a result of Spengler's win.
A few seconds down the road, Dirk Werner achieved his best
DTM race result to date in fourth place ahead of RBM's Augusto Farfus who completed the top five.
Mike Rockenfeller ended the race as the highest place Audi in sixth while Robert Wickens enjoyed another strong result in seventh in his Mucke-run Mercedes.
After stalling on the start and leaving the track on his own accord running into turn 1, Mattias Ekstrom recovered to finish eighth while fellow Audi duo Filipe Albuquerque and Timo Scheider rounded off the points paying positions in ninth and tenth.
Notable retirements included defending champion Martin Tomczyk - after his BMW developed a cooling issue on lap 20, while outside championship contender, Edoardo Mortara's race ended as a result of contact damage after the Italian spun Ralf Schumacher around in the opening corner mealy.
by Simon Evans