Edoardo Mortara took his first victory of the 2018 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters season, along with his first for Mercedes, having won an intense three-driver battle for the win in the latter stages of the race, which was heavily reduced due to a red-flag stoppage with 38 minutes remaining.
Team RMR’s Timo Glock extended his championship lead by finishing 0.920 seconds behind the Mercedes driver, following his late-minute overtake on rookie Philipp Eng, who completed the podium.
Lucas Auer, who started on pole position, would come under pressure on both restarts, but would lose out to the top three after his mandatory pit stop, eventually finishing fourth ahead of 2012 champion Bruno Spengler.
Defending champion René Rast was eliminated from the race following a hefty crash, as the Audi Sport driver’s RS5 DTM rolled following contact between himself and Loïc Duval, which brought out a red-flag stoppage.
Paul Di Resta was sixth ahead of a barrage of cars competing for points in the last few minutes, finishing sixth ahead of Marco Wittmann, Pascal Wehrlein, Gary Paffett and Augusto Farfus, who completed the top ten.
Mike Rockenfeller was eleventh, ahead of Joel Eriksson, Robin Frijns, and Daniel Juncadella, who was the last of the classified finishers, after Audi had a total of four cars eliminated within the first half of the race.
Both Frijns and Juncadella would end up being noticed by the stewards, as both drivers were handed five-second penalties for breaching the Indy-style restart procedures.
An early incident at the start saw both Jamie Green and Nico Müller eliminated, as the Swiss driver failed to get away after lights out, with the Briton unable to avoid his Ingolstadt stablemate.
Green was unsighted as Rast went up the inside of Müller, with the Briton opting to pull his car to the inside of the start/finish straight, bringing out an extended Safety Car period before the completion of lap one.
Rast would find his car somersaulting after Duval clipped the left rear of his Audi, with the German being taken away for medical checks, in what has been the biggest accident in the series since Alexandre Premat’s crash at Adria International Raceway in 2010.
Going into the final race day of the weekend, Glock now extends his lead to 19 points ahead of Paffett, with Mortara now third on 37 points.
BMW Team RMR now lead the Teams’ standings on 79, ahead of SILBERPFEIL Energy Mercedes-AMG Motorsport and Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Petronas, with all teams separated by 12 points.
Mercedes continues to lead in the constructors’ standings with 137 to their credit, with BMW on 125, whilst Audi Sport have only 39 points scored so far after just three races.
The final free practice session of the weekend takes place at 0900 local time (BST + 1), lasting for thirty minutes.
Race result
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 48 | Edoardo MORTARA |  |
SILBERPFEIL Energy Mercedes-AMG Motorsport | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 21 | 57:54.520 | 1:40.206 | 7 |
| 2 | 16 | Timo GLOCK |  |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 21 | 0.920 | 1:39.900 | 5 |
| 3 | 25 | Philipp ENG |  |
BMW Team RMR | BMW M4 DTM | 21 | 2.887 | 1:40.425 | 2 |
| 4 | 22 | Lucas AUER | |
SILBERPFEIL Energy Mercedes-AMG Motorsport | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 21 | 3.185 | 1:40.511 | 1 |
| 5 | 7 | Bruno SPENGLER |  |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 21 | 5.094 | 1:40.701 | 3 |
| 6 | 3 | Paul DI RESTA |  |
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport REMUS | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 21 | 5.761 | 1:40.708 | 8 |
| 7 | 11 | Marco WITTMANN | |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 21 | 6.403 | 1:40.164 | 6 |
| 8 | 94 | Pascal WEHRLEIN | |
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport PETRONAS | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 21 | 7.281 | 1:40.306 | 4 |
| 9 | 2 | Gary PAFFETT | |
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport PETRONAS | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 21 | 7.607 | 1:40.712 | 14 |
| 10 | 15 | Augusto FARFUS |  |
BMW Team RMG | BMW M4 DTM | 21 | 8.369 | 1:40.187 | 16 |
| 11 | 99 | Mike ROCKENFELLER | |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 21 | 8.758 | 1:40.401 | 10 |
| 12 | 47 | Joel ERIKSSON |  |
BMW Team RBM | BMW M4 DTM | 21 | 9.522 | 1:40.558 | 11 |
| 13 | 4 | Robin FRIJNS |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 21 | 12.941 | 1:40.226 | 12 |
| 14 | 23 | Daniel JUNCADELLA |  |
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport REMUS | Mercedes-AMG C63 DTM | 21 | 13.867 | 1:39.699 | 18 |
| R | 28 | Loïc DUVAL |  |
Audi Sport Team Phoenix | Audi RS5 DTM | 7 | DNF | N/A | 13 |
| R | 33 | René RAST | |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 6 | DNF | N/A | 15 |
| R | 51 | Nico MÜLLER |  |
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline | Audi RS5 DTM | 0 | DNF | N/A | 9 |
| R | 53 | Jamie GREEN | |
Audi Sport Team Rosberg | Audi RS5 DTM | 0 | DNF | N/A | 17 |