Allan McNish meanwhile ended up fourth, ahead of Martin Tomcyzk and Heinz-Harald Frentzen, the latter the best placed of the Opel drivers.
"It was a thrilling and extremely gruelling race," reflected the German. "After having spun through no fault of my own, in lap one, I dropped back to the end of the field and fought my way back up. At the beginning of the second safety-car period, I came in for my second stop but unfortunately, Marcel Fassler was already standing there and my stop couldn't be conducted. A pity, as we had a great strategy, actually."
Pole sitter, Tom Kristensen had to settle for seventh, while the final point went to Pierre Kaffer.
Of the rest, seven drivers failed to make it to the finish, most noticeably Green and Hakkinen after the former out-braked himself putting both out of the event.
"When I braked for the hairpin, the car started sliding and I wasn't able to control it," explained Green. "Therefore I hit Mika and also touched Ekstrom [who I was trying to pass]. I'm very sorry for the retirement and will apologize to both."
Jean Alesi was another of those who didn't go the distance, when he had a mechanical problem while running third.
"The drive problem cost me valuable points today," said Alesi. "The car performed very well and starting fourth a podium finish would have been possible: I'm sorry for my team which had worked very hard."
The DTM now heads to the Nurburgring, where round seven will take place on August 7.
