Jamie Green has thrown himself back into DTM Series title contention by claiming victory at Hockenheim.
The Briton was joined on the podium by Mike Rockenfeller and Timo Glock.
Having emerged as the form man in the last few races – would have won in Spielberg race 1 had he not allowed Mattias Ekström through for victory or if he had not suffered a mechanical issue late on in the second race – Green, starting from third on the grid passed Maxime Martin and pole-man Glock.
This victory is significant as championship leader Ekström failed to add to his points tally when he found himself down and out of the points in 11th place.
As Rene Rast and Rockenfeller finished sixth and second, it means it will be a four-way Audi fight for the title tomorrow. Green is nine points adrift of Ekström, Rast 13 behind, and Rockenfeller has a 20 point deficit with 28 to play for.
Mercedes and BMW‘s hopes for Lucas Auer and Marco Wittmann were put to an end when Auer could only manage eighth and Wittmann did not score.
Glock made a good start from pole position, and managed to open up a gap to Green who had gotten ahead of Martin.
As the BMW outfront started to hit issues with his tyres, Green clipped away at the lead and was awarded with the opportunity to get into the lead on lap 6.
Coming to the Spitzkehre hairpin, Green moved to the outside of Glock and stayed there into the Mercedes Arena holding onto the inside line. However, he ran wide which allowed Glock to come back at him and the pair made contact which caused the BMW driver to become airborne and run extremely wide but managed to regain track position ahead of Green.
The incident was investigated by the stewards who reprimanded Green, but as it is his fifth of the season he will have to serve a 10 place grid drop tomorrow.
Green managed to get the job done earlier in the lap next time round on the back straight, to open up a gap to Glock.
Clearly struggling, a train of cars built up behind Glock who pitted not long after losing the race lead but at that time was 3.7 seconds adrift of Green. The race leader came in three laps later.
Once the pit stop phase had played out, Glock was still in second from Martin, Edoardo Mortara, Rast, Robert Wickens and Rockenfeller.
But Rockenfeller, was one of the last drivers to switch to fresh rubber – also having saved all of his DRS allowance – made a charge through the field and wrestled second from Glock on the final lap.
Martin was fourth, Mortara fifth and Rast fought off a late challenge from Wickens for sixth.
Auer, who only managed 15th in qualifying, claimed eighth place with team-mate Gary Paffett acting as rear gunner. Bruno Spengler claimed the final point after muscling his BMW past Ekström and Nico Muller.
The stewards handed Ekström a caution after an aggressive move against Maro Engel early on, this was his third of the season and as a result must drop five places on the grid tomorrow.
Wittmann, Paul di Resta, Tom Blomqvist, Engel, Augusto Farfus and Loic Duval completed the classification.
The result means Audi have claimed the Manufacturers’ Championship and Team Rosberg have taken the Teams’ Championship. As all other competitors have been eliminated it also means they have claimed the Drivers’ Championship as well without anyone actually having been crowned yet.
The last time Audi took all three titles in one season was in 2004, when Ekström was crowned champion.
Qualifying for the finale showdown is at 12.00 local time with the race at 15.10 and will run for 55 minutes plus one lap, and is certainly not one to be missed.
