DTM – Spengler, the star of BMW at Hockenheim

Bruno Spengler takes his fourth victory of the season at Hockenheim and takes his first title in DTM. And this with BMW, which made its comeback in the discipline this year. The Canadian made a brilliant start from third place on the grid, taking the advantage over pole sitter Augusto Farfus (BMW) and his rival Gary Paffett who fell to fourth position after a bad start. The latter, however, regained the top three by taking advantage of contact between Mattias Ekström (Audi) and Joey Hand (BMW), before recovering his second position after the first refueling stops.

Gary Paffett then began a crazy comeback, attacking hard to regain the race leader, who only gave him three points in the general classification at the start of this last round. Despite all his efforts, the AMG C-Class driver lost out by two seconds to the winner who won his first title in the discipline and who offered BMW the Manufacturers' title for its return after a 20-year absence. The propeller manufacturer also won the Teams title with Team Schnitzer.

Augusto Farfus completes the podium with a good lead over Jamie Green who could also claim the title even if the driver Mercedes was further behind in the Championship. His tenth place on the grid did not allow him to defend his chances. Gary Paffett's teammate completes the top five ahead of Edoardo Mortara (Audi), Andy Priaulx and Joey Hand (BMW). On the second step of the podium in Valencia, Adrien Tambay was unable to repeat such a feat. The Audi driver retires on the first lap on contact. David Coulthard also did not see the finish for his last DTM event, the Scot having retired on lap 23 after being sent into a spin by the Audi A5 DTM of Timo Scheider who received a penalty. 'a drive-through and which ultimately ranks 12th.

Discover the report from the DTM final at Hockenheim in the next issue of AUTOhebdo, available from Tuesday in digital version for iPad, PC and Mac, and from Wednesday on newsstands.