Team RMG’s Bruno Spengler took his first Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters race victory since Spielberg 2013 in very changeable conditions at the Norisring, storming his way through to the front of the field after lights out to remain unchallenged.
The battle for second place saw both Maxime Martin and new points leader Mattias Ekström fight hard for the runner-up spot, but the Belgian came back from bogging down at the start to prevail over the Team Abt Sportsline driver, who ran out of DRS in the final two laps to end up completing the podium.
A first turn incident collected both Lucas Auer and Robert Wickens, who both promptly retired after sustaining damage to both their cars, with Stuttgart stablemate Paul Di Resta doing a 360 degree spin after the melée.
It saw four cars go wide coming out of turn one, with Glock and Maro Engel being involved, as Auer went off track into the hairpin, and rejoined the track, before contact with Di Resta forced him to pit.
Apart from Augusto Farfus having to retire from technical troubles on lap 11, the remaining BMWs of defending champion Marco Wittmann, Tom Blomqvist and Glock completed the top six.
Glock had been battling with Edoardo Mortara, who finished eighth behind Jamie Green, who is still looking for another win at the Norisring. The Italian was hit from behind by Mike Rockenfeller, who received a drive-through penalty, with Mortara unable to get past Green in the latter stages, having gone wide trying to get past into turn one.
Gary Paffett continues his successive points-scoring run, completing the top ten in his C63 AMG Coupé, being the only driver to have scored points in every race so far.
Rast, along with Rockenfeller, also received a drive-through penalty, having gone across the yellow line from pit lane exit on lap 21, as the pair finished 12th and 13th respectively.
Engel’s race did not get off to the best of starts either, having spun coming out of the Schöller Esses, forcing the Team SILBERFEIL Energy driver to start from the back, with both himself and Audi’s Loïc Duval completing the order for all classified finishers in 14th and 15th.
The final free practice session of the race weekend gets underway at 1110 local time on Sunday, lasting for 30 minutes.
Race result
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 7 | Bruno SPENGLER |  |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 62 | 53:15.532 | 48.623 | 3 |
| 2 | 36 | Maxime MARTIN |  |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 62 | 4.385 | 48.678 | 1 |
| 3 | 5 | Mattias EKSTRÖM |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 62 | 4.776 | 48.544 | 6 |
| 4 | 11 | Marco WITTMANN |  |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 62 | 10.812 | 48.496 | 7 |
| 5 | 16 | Timo GLOCK | |
BMW Team RMR | BMW M4 DTM | 62 | 12.151 | 48.519 | 8 |
| 6 | 31 | Tom BLOMQVIST |  |
BMW Team RMR | BMW M4 DTM | 62 | 12.828 | 48.345 | 4 |
| 7 | 53 | Jamie GREEN | |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 62 | 18.573 | 48.578 | 9 |
| 8 | 48 | Edoardo MORTARA |  |
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport BWT | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 62 | 20.328 | 48.356 | 14 |
| 9 | 51 | Nico MÜLLER |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 62 | 21.355 | 48.472 | 10 |
| 10 | 2 | Gary PAFFETT | |
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Mercedes me | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 62 | 34.707 | 48.709 | 13 |
| 11 | 3 | Paul DI RESTA | |
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport SILBERPFEIL Energy | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 62 | 34.986 | 48.578 | 17 |
| 12 | 33 | René RAST | |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 62 | 35.357 | 48.474 | 2 |
| 13 | 99 | Mike ROCKENFELLER | |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 62 | 41.287 | 48.465 | 12 |
| 14 | 63 | Maro ENGEL | |
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport SILBERPFEIL Energy | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 62 | 42.528 | 48.863 | 15 |
| 15 | 77 | Loïc DUVAL |  |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 61 | 1 LAP | 48.790 | 18 |
| R | 15 | Augusto FARFUS |  |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 10 | DNF | 56.124 | 16 |
| R | 22 | Lucas AUER |  |
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport BWT | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 2 | DNF | N/A | 5 |
| R | 6 | Robert WICKENS | |
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Mercedes me | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 1 | DNF | N/A | 11 |