Jamie Green takes Norisring win for Mercedes

The soaked street race in Nuremberg started under yellow but ended green when Mercedes driver Jamie Green overtook Martin Tomczyk on the final lap. As the first win for the Britt this season, Green is now solidly second overall in the 2012 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters championship. Tomczyk would have to settle for second while fellow BMW driver Bruno Spengler finished third.

"My tyres were giving excellent grip on the last ten laps and my pace was very strong. My Mercedes AMG C-Coupé was running superbly, and I was grinning from ear to ear on those last few laps. At the end of an amazingly exciting race, I capped it all off by overtaking Bruno Spengler and Martin Tomczyk. I am absolutely delighted about this win. It’s my fourth on this track and also the tenth on the trot for Mercedes-Benz at the Norisring. So a fantastic day all round," said Green.

The race started after two reconnaissance laps so the drivers could experience the saturated conditions before heading off in anger. Gary Paffett lead the way to the green flag and promptly spun from his pole position. Many drivers piled up behind the British driver and the safety car was quickly sent out to contain the field.

Martin Tomczyk, BMW Team RMG BMW M3 DTM, Bruno Spengler, BMW Team Schnitzer BMW M3 DTM

Photo by: xpb.cc

Ralph Schumacher inherited the lead but as the action restarted he was soon under pressure from Tomczyk as most of the field started to battle for position. Tomczyk was around the German by lap 17 and would go on to lead the race in his BMW until the final lap. Schumacher unfortunately had to retire with car troubles from the lead.

“It is obviously no fun for a racing driver to miss out on a possible victory on the final lap," admitted Tomczyk. "I had already noticed that Jamie Green had been catching me consistently in the closing stages. He then managed to overtake me shortly before the finish. Immediately after the race I was extremely disappointed to have thrown the victory away. I am quite happy now though: that is my second podium in a row. I finished runner-up here in difficult conditions, just as I did in Spielberg. Today we proved we are also competitive in the rain. That is very encouraging for the rest of the season.”

Gary Paffett continues to lead in points with a solid fourth placed finish today followed by David Coulthard in fifth. Audi had a disappointing day at their home track, Mike Rockenfeller crossed the line in sixth as their best running driver. Once again Mercedes has but a stop to Audi earning any home track glory.

"That was a weekend to forget, said Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich. "For us, right after turn one it was clear that this wouldn’t be our day. ‘Rocky’s’ (Mike Rockenfeller) car was pretty much the only one of our vehicles that got out of this unharmed. Everyone else was involved in the scrapping, and Edo (Mortara) and Mattias (Ekström) were even forced to retire because of it. Most of the other cars had suffered some damage and as a result were no doubt unable to draw on their full performance potential. Now there’s just one thing to do: quickly forget the whole thing and look ahead."