Gary took what he called a “massive step” towards being crowned the 2005 DTM champion at Istanbul Park in Turkey by taking his fifth victory in the 10 races so far this year in his works AMG Mercedes C-Class.

The British star now only needs one point, an eighth place finish, in the final round at Hockenheim in Germany on October 23 to be champion. His title rival Mattias Ekstrom must win to have any chance at Hockenheim, even if Gary doesn’t finish the race, but the Swede failed to score a point in Turkey, slipping down to 12th position in a disastrous race for the Audi team.

Gary made a steady start to Friday’s tests, concentrating on finding the right set-up to hone his car to this new circuit. He was down in 14th in session one, but turned on the speed in the second period, leaping up to second and only 0.168secs slower than AMG Mercedes team-mate Bernd Schneider.

Again, in Saturday’s free practice, set-up work overcame the need for outright speed, and Gary was way down in 18th, but confident that the race set-up work he had done would stand him in good stead when it mattered.

“We had a few issues to solve, but generally the testing and practice was good, as we knew we were coming here with a proven package,” said Gary. “We might not have been quick on Saturday morning, but I knew we would be.”

In pre-qualifying, Gary was back at the top of the times for much of the session, happy with his first two runs and electing not to go out for a final run that could have netted him the quickest time. Instead, he settled for second behind Mercedes colleague Bruno Spengler, but he turned that around in the all-important single-lap Super Pole, taking his fourth pole position of the season, and beating four-time champion Schneider by just 0.055secs.

“I saw that Bernd had set a very good time, so I pushed hard,” said Gary. “The more I pushed, the faster the car went, it’s as simple as that, although my advantage of five hundredths of a second isn’t much! All the work we did on the car through Friday and Saturday morning really paid off. We didn’t change the car at all throughout qualifying.”

Raceday presented another hurdle for Gary and his AMG team to overcome: it was pouring with rain. Only 15th fastest in the warm-up session, Gary made some crucial changes to his car’s wet set-up for the race, which worked out perfectly. He was never headed during a dominant performance in the most treacherous conditions, leading home and impressive Mercedes 1-2-3-4.

“It’s a massive step towards the championship,” said Gary. “The car was perfect, so I have to thank the team for all their hard work too. To have four cars in the top four places shows how strong Mercedes is. This is an amazing result.”

About his approach to the Hockenheim finale, Gary said: “I’m going to do the same job there as I have done everywhere else. I know I only need one point, but I will be going to Hockenheim looking to win, because that would be the best way to win the championship.”