Although Mercedes again held sway in terms of victory in the DTM's blue riband race at the historic Norisring, Audi pacesetter Timo Scheider did enough to cling on to his championship lead by claiming the marque's first podium at the street circuit in three years.
Scheider and stable-mate Mattias Ekström were among the frontrunners in a nail-biting race that saw the first four cars separated by just 2.5secs when they crossed the finish line, and both were later to regret not being able to qualify better on Saturday, with Ekström back in an unfavourable eighth position and on the grid, while Scheider trailed the three pace-setting Mercedes.
The points leader made his job even harder on raceday when he started with insufficient revs when the red lights went out and dropped to seventh on lap one. From there, however, the recovery made by both Audi drivers showed that the new A4 will be capable of winning on circuits that demand top speed: Ekström and Scheider fought hard to make up the ground conceded, climbing as high as positions three and four, before, in the final phase of the race, catching up with the two leading Mercedes of Jamie Green and Bruno Spengler.
The two leaders, however, made no mistakes, despite the pressure, and Ekström and Scheider were left to fight amongst themselves - a battle they took almost to the chequered flag.
Keen to salvage as many points as possible from a losing cause, Scheider pushed past the reigning champion at the last corner, giving himself enough of a haul to ensure that he remained a single point ahead of race winner Green in the season's standings.
"That was really a sensational race, an extreme thriller," Scheider said afterwards, "I'm just sorry that I messed up the start the way I did. As a result, I had to attack extremely hard during the rest of the race.
![Timo Scheider celebrates victory at Oschersleben [pic credit: Audi Motorsport]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/431157.jpg)
