With only a few laps to go, the safety car went in following a racing incident caused by Audi's Tom Kristensen and practically brought Scheider less than a car length behind Di Resta. The Brit forgot all about the 6-second lead he had to Scheider prior to the deployment of the safety car and defended well in the closing 2 laps of the race, bringing Mercedes their 150th win in the DTM.
“A great race for me – it’s fantastic to score my first win of the season in my home race and to achieve the 150th win for Mercedes-Benz in the DTM together with my team. Already yesterday’s qualifying with the pole position was perfect and today my C-Class was at its best,” said Di Resta after the race.
“The safety car periods towards the end of the race made it exciting; however, I always controlled the field. Thank you to my team, this victory is a nice reward for everybody’s hard work,” added the British driver.
The podium was completed by Audi's works driver Martin Tomczyk, who could have finished in the runner-up spot hadn't it been for the team orders that forced him to let go of his 2nd place in favor of Scheider after the second pit stops. He eventually secured his teammate another 3 points of advantage, as he held off Merc's Gary Paffett for 3rd place.
Mattias Ekstrom had to settle for 5th overall despite a late surge on Paffett, while the rest of the point-scoring positions went to Canadian Bruno Spengler, German Mike Rockenfeller and home's favorite Oliver Jarvis.
In the overall classification, Scheider now leads from Ekstrom by 5 points, with Paffett in 3rd place some 4 more points behind.
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