It wasn't do be for Ekstrom, however, the 2004 champion inexplicably ran out of fuel on the penultimate lap, handing Kristensen second with Schneider cruising to the victory as Hakkinen dramatically snatched the final podium place from Green a matter of yards from the flag.
"It was a very exciting race for me," said an upbeat Green. "First I lost some places and I made an early pit stop that got me stuck in traffic. After that I was driving well and catching up. I'm very happy to score some points."
Meanwhile, his team mate Hakkinen was forced to rue his pit stop problems, but was happy with his podium.
"This was a tough weekend," admitted the Finn, "we had a very good set-up, but unfortunately I lost time during my second pit stop. However, I finished on the podium like one year ago at this track."
From the Audi camp, Tom Kristensen had the most reason to be cheerful with his third place. "That was a good race for me, the strategy and pit stops were perfect, which shows me that I can rely one-hundred per cent on my team," said the Dane
"My A4 was very fast, and I was able to overtake several other drivers, which was great fun. Unfortunately, we only had a single set of new tyres with which we could play with in the race. We could have won today if we'd had a second set. A pair of second places isn't such a bad start to the season."
In contrast, fellow Audi charger Ekstrom admits his effective retirement from the race is anything but ideal in the championship stakes. "I could have finished as the runner-up," sighed the Swede, "but, unfortunately, retired due to lack of fuel. Scoring no points in two races now makes it very difficult for me in the Championship."
Head of Audi Motorsport Dr Wolfgang Ulrich expressed a degree of happiness as his cars were in contention for the race win, but expected more than one Audi A4 DTM at the sharp end of results
