Rene Rast takes sixth straight win, Gary Paffett claims DTM title

Audi's Rene Rast claimed his sixth straight DTM victory in his attempt to try and win back-to-back championships but could not stop Mercedes' Gary Paffett from winning his second title in Hockenheim.

Rast had started in second place behind polesitter Marco Wittmann, Rast made a superb start to get away from his grid slot and stormed past his compatriot into Turn 1 to take the race lead and never looked back from there.

Wittmann tried to chase down the #33 Audi in the early stages of the race with Paffett in the #2 Mercedes, who started in third, maintaining a solid gap behind to avoid getting into trouble and spoil his title chances.

Of the leading three drivers, the Brit was the first to make his mandatory pit-stop in order to cover himself from any incidents which could have caused a safety car, his only concern would be the Audis, who often come good in the latter part of the race.

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As the pit stops cycled through Paffett maintained the gap to Wittmann and Rast to ensure he secured his second title, adding to the championship he won in 2005.

Unfortunately for Rast, he had little help from his fellow manufacturer drivers with Nico Muller in the #51 Castrol EDGE car who started seventh and eventually came through to finish in fourth when the chequered flag fell.

Robin Frijns in the ARAL Ultimate #4 Audi made a late pitstop like Muller and made a charge towards the front in the latter stages of the race and ended up fifth; in the early laps he did have a moment with Phillip Eng who had run him wide through the Parabolica and even bounced over the grass to pass the BMW.

BMW stalwarts Bruno Spengler and Augusto Farfus ran their races with little trouble in the final race of the season in his BMW M4s to end their campaign with sixth and seventh place finishes respectively.

The BMW M4s also rounded out the top 10 with Eng, Joel Eriksson and former F1 driver Timo Glock.

Paul di Resta was the other title contender going into the season's 20th and final race; however, after a poor qualifying left the Scotsman 12th on the grid his task was all the more difficult.

After making an early pit stop and taking a gamble on the strategy he eventually lost places as the race as his tyres fell away and ended his season with a 14th place finish and he cut a deflated figure post-race.