Swiss driver Schmidt qualified seventh and gained one position in the race before handing over the Audi R8 LMS fielded by BWT Mücke Motorsport to co-driver Christopher Haase. The Audi sports driver took advantage of the rain in the closing stages to fight his way up into third place overall, which also gave Schmidt his fifth overall win in the Pirelli Trophy

Schmidt told us: "In the first stint, I gave it everything I'd got. Of course, starting from seventh puts you in reach of the podium but still not all that close, because it is very difficult to overtake here at Oschersleben. I was able to hand the car over in a decent position, and my team-mate Christopher Haase then did a great job in the rain while other drivers were having problems."

Fellow Audi driver, Ricardo Feller, finished fourth overall and was the second-best Junior driver. Third place in the Pirelli Junior classification went to Mercedes-AMG drivers Marvin Dienst and Aidan Read. Dienst had been on pole and led the race for a long time, but team mate Read dropped back down to fifth in the closing stages as rain began to fall.

Corvette driver Sven Barth was the best in the Pirelli Trophy classification. Barth's team mate, David Jahn, had fought for the lead with Dienst for quite a long time before Barth ran over the kerbs in the wet while scrapping with fellow Corvette driver, Marvin Kirchhöfer, causing him to spin. That dropped him back down to eighth place in the overall standings, but his Trophy victory was never under threat. "We're not really happy," said Barth, summing up. "David did a great job with fourth place in qualifying, and in the race he was able to comfortably draw away from the rest of the field along with the Schütz Mercedes. Looking back, we ought to have pitted one lap sooner, because Aidan Read in P1 was much slower at the start of his stint. However, fair overtaking is very difficult or even impossible, even with the Corvette, if the guy in front sticks to the racing line. The rest of the leading group was closing in, and Marvin Kirchhöfer was obviously also intent on moving forwards. Following a fair scrap with Marvin in the rain, I had to drive on the wet outside line and spun off - obviously my mistake. Fortunately, the car was still running after the slight rear-end impact. The Schütz Mercedes, which I then found myself following, was losing oil, which made visibility very poor at times, but of course that's no excuse. Eighth place would have been an excellent result last year, but after David Jahn laid the groundwork in today's quali, the end result is none too good as far as I'm concerned. Sure, things are looking very positive, but who knows how many times we'll get the chance to finish on the podium this year."