Red Bull Audi driver Mattias Ekström had to settle for second place in Sunday's DTM Norisring in Nurenberg, Germany, as Britain's Jamie Green passed the chequered flag first for the third year in a row.
In front of 132,000 fans at the 2.3km street circuit, Green emerged victorious once more - this time by a margin of just 0.5 seconds from Ekström and the British driver acknowledged the pressure that the Swede had subjected him to after the race.
"Mattias [Ekström] was right behind me all the time, that wasn’t easy," Green admitted. "At this track, making a mistake is easy. I am happy that I have managed to stay in front. Three wins in a row are a great wedding present. I dedicate this victory to my wife. We are unable to win football matches, but we can win races," he joked.
Ekström, in contrast, was not in the mood for humour after being denied the win despite being behind the wheel of what he thought was the best car on the day.
"Of course, I am not overjoyed with my second place," he said. "I had the feeling that I was fastest. The car was so good, I could have raced for another hour. The tyres remained in a very good condition. But my opponent drove without making any mistakes and was clever enough to drive victory home. This track suits Jamie. We have already seen that in previous years."
Ralf Schumacher had surprisingly started the race from pole position, but the German was unable to capitalise on his advantage and was given a drive-through penalty for a jump start.
The former F1 driver was leading the race after lap seven when he came into the pits, but the penalty meant that he was moved back to 18th position. Schumacher made up ground through the field to finish 11th.
Ekström's team-mate Martin Tomczyk finished in the points in eighth, but will be disappointed with a start that saw him lose 10 places, while David Coulthard finished where he began the race - in 13th place, despite briefly running in sixth.
The result means that Ekström slips to third in the overall standings - one point behind Green and 11 points behind Bruno Spengler, whose consistent sequence of results continued with a third place.
DTM Norisring results
1. Jamie Green (Mercedes) 1h08m05.282s
2. Mattias Ekstrom (Red Bull Audi) + 0.591s
3. Bruno Spengler (Mercedes) + 1.910s
4. Oliver Jarvis (Audi) + 9.946s
5. Timo Scheider (Audi) + 12.315s
6. Gary Paffett (Mercedes) + 14.521s
7. Alexandre Premat (Audi) + 15.834s
8. Martin Tomczyk (Red Bull Audi) + 16.100s
9. Maro Engel (Mercedes) + 22.154s
10. Paul di Resta (Mercedes) + 31.536s
11. Ralf Schumacher (Mercedes) + 31.979s
12. Mike Rockenfeller (Audi) + 34.790s
13. David Coulthard (Mercedes) + 35.751s
14. Franky Cheng (Mercedes) + 1 lap
15. Susie Stoddart (Mercedes) + 1 lap
16. Katherine Legge (Audi) + 1 lap
Find out more about Mattias Ekström here
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