Nico Müller has won the Saturday DTM race at the Lausitzring after championship leader Rene Rast retired in the early stages with a mechanical failure.
Rast led from pole position in the early stages of the race, until he was struck by problems on lap 7, dropping him to last before eventually retiring several laps later.
This handed the lead to Müller, who held off a challenge from Audi stablemate Robin Frijns to take victory and take significant bite out of Rast's championship lead.
Marco Wittmann and Mike Rockenfeller did battle in the closing stages for third place, with the Audi veteran eventually besting the double champion to take third, with Wittmann fourth ahead of Philipp Eng.
Eng himself had a close encounter with Pietro Fittipaldi, narrowly avoiding contact and an unsafe release penalty when the two pitted together on lap 15. A frustrated Eng was eventually able to get past the Brazilian rookie, with Loic Duval finishing sixth and Fittipaldi seventh.
The top ten was rounded out by Joel Eriksson, Bruno Spengler and Jamie Green. Green was one of two drivers who did serve a penalty for an unsafe pit release, with Jonathan Aberdein being the other.
In total, sixteen drivers made it to the finish, with Timo Glock being the only other driver to join Rast as a retirement.
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