BMW’s Bruno Spengler took a commanding victory in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters sixth race of the 2012 season at the Nürburgring, beating Audi’s Edoardo Mortara by 6.703 seconds.
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Canadian Spengler, who had qualified on pole position on Saturday, controlled the entire race at a scorching hot Nürburgring to take his second win of the year and move up to second in the championship standings, closing the gap to series leader Gary Paffett to 20 points.
Italian Mortara took his fourth podium in the DTM with second, although the Audi driver was never in a position to challenge Spengler for the victory. BMW’s Martin Tomczyk completed the podium in third to keep his championship challenge alive, although the reigning champion is still 34 points adrift of leader Paffett.
Mercedes’ Jamie Green, who was second in the championship heading into the race, finished fourth and with it closed the gap to fellow Brit Paffett in the championship, despite dropping to third overall behind Spengler in the points.
Mike Rockenfeller finished in fifth, although the Audi driver had been in contention for a podium before being passed by both Tomczyk and Green during the first and second round of pitstops respectively.
Paffett himself finished in sixth, although it could have been higher but for a problem attaching his right-rear tyre at his second pitstop that saw him lose precious seconds to his rivals.
Canadian Mercedes driver Robert Wickens followed up on his first DTM points last time out with a career-best seventh placed finish, whilst Portugese Audi racer Filipe Albuquerque continued his consistent form by taking his fifth points finish of the season in eighth. The Rosberg Audi driver will be disappointed that he didn’t make more of his race however, after starting from third on the grid.
Completing the top ten were Audi’s Timo Scheider and BMW’s Augusto Farfus, with both having lost out to Albuquerque in the final stage of the race.
Swede Mattias Ekström failed to recover from his 12th place on the grid and could only finish in 11th, dropping the former double champion to seventh in the championship standings.
Of note was Rahel Frey securing her strongest finish of the season in 14th after a competitive race by the Swiss Audi driver.
It proved to be a difficult race for several Brits, with Susie Wolff finishing in 17th, Andy Priaulx 19th and David Coulthard 20th. Coulthard had a spin at the mid-point of the race which saw him lose significant time. Priaulx was on the receiving end of contact from Christian Vietoris on the fourth lap, which later saw Vietoris handed a drive-through penalty.
There were only two retirements from the race, with Frenchman Adrien Tambay and Spaniard Roberto Merhi both failing to finish, the two having earlier made contact on the second lap of the race that saw Tambay given a drive-through penalty.