BMW’s Marco Wittmann claimed victory in the DTM finale at Hockenheim as he was succeeded as champion by rookie René Rast.
Rast entered the finale third in the standings but finished as runner-up to Wittmann, enabling him to overhaul title rivals Mattias Ekström and Jamie Green.
Ekström and Green, demoted down the grid due to penalties hanging over from Saturday’s race, made light contact on the opening lap, with Green tumbling to last.
However, the Briton fought back, and overhauled Ekström prior to the pit stop phase, as they ran relatively late, in order to profit from fresh tyres during the closing laps.
With Rast second, Ekström needed to finish in the top six, but could climb only to eighth, three positions behind Green.
As a result, Rast snatched the crown by three points from Ekström, with Green a further three behind.
Rast started from the front row of the grid but a poor first lap left him fifth, before he clawed his way back ahead of Robert Wickens and Lucas Auer.
Rast trailed Wittmann and while the latter used the undercut against pole sitter and early leader Tom Blomqvist, the Audi driver extended his stint to clear the youngster, who was later taken out of podium contention after being hit by Wickens.
Wickens was penalised for causing the clash but retired before he could serve his sanction.
The Blomqvist/Wickens collision promoted Maxime Martin into the final podium position, but he was overhauled by the late-stopping Mike Rockenfeller.
Rockenfeller held his own title aspirations prior to the race but the results did not fall his way, and he wound up fourth in the standings, 12 points behind Rast.
Gary Paffett was fourth for Mercedes, in front of Green, Martin, Augusto Farfus and Ekström.
Edoardo Mortara and Lucas Auer rounded out the top 10 respectively.
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