Franchitti's second victory of the season moves him to within 41 points of Power, who has scored all four of his wins this year at road and street course events. However, just one more road course remains this season, which wraps up with four consecutive oval track events. Power has yet to win on an oval, while Franchitti has multiple victories in his 14-season open-wheel racing career.

Aditya Patel has won the fourth race of the season in the Volkswagen Scirocco R-Cup at the Nürburgring. The 22-year-old from Chennai in his sport coupe powered by bio natural gas achieved a crystal-clear start-finish victory, ahead of leader of the standings Maciek Steinhof (Poland) and Nordschleife legend Olaf Manthey (Germany). Juniors Kris Heidorn (Germany), Jann-Hendrik Ubben (Germany) and Arne Larisch (Germany) clinched places four to six in their Scirocco R cars that deliver up to 275 hp.

The thrilling 14-lap race offered numerous overtaking manoeuvres and close duels galore. Maciek Steinhof managed a perfect start - from position eight, he made up as many as four places on the first lap. Nürburgring legend Olaf Manthey proved duelling prowess as well. He made clever use of his additional push-to-pass power and took third place on the podium on his return to touring car racing. But not all of the duels ended without harm: the Swiss Rahel Frey fought a close battle for second place with touring car ace Uwe Alzen until both were forced to retire after their cars touched. A similar fate was suffered by seasoned Nordschleife campaigner Harald Grohs and junior racer Isabelle Biela (Czech Republic) who had a heavy collision and caused a safety car period. None of the drivers were injured.

Was this the preliminary decision in the title fight? Nicolas Armindo celebrated his third straight win of the season on the Nürburgring. Driving for Hermes Attempto Racing with four races left on the calendar, the Frenchman's advantage is a healthy 20 points. In a repeat of the third round on the EuroSpeedway Lausitz, the man from Alsace had the competitive edge in the Carrera Cup Deutschland setting pole position, fastest race lap and claiming victory.

Moreover, Armindo dominated round five of the season while behind him his pursuers were thrown into bedlam. Sean Edwards snatched second for his Deutsche Post by tolimit squad. The British pilot currently sits only seventh overall in the standings as he is not contesting all nine rounds. After another spirited performance, a delighted Uwe Alzen claimed the third podium spot. The 42-year-old driving for Herberth Motorsport PZ Olympiapark continued on seamlessly from the Norisring with another top result which has catapulted the German to now rank second overall. Due to his troubled start to the season, Alzen, however, sits 20 points behind Armindo.

Points' leader Nicolas Armindo seems unstoppable. After setting pole at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz and the Norisring, the Frenchman again planted his Porsche 911 GT3 Cup at the top of the field on the Nürburgring - with his third pole position in a row. Competing for Hermes Attempto Racing, the 28-year-old turned the quickest lap on the 3.629 km circuit in Germany's Eifel region in 1.30.803 minutes, shaving almost one second off last year's qualifying time.

With his performance, Nicolas Armindo, who recently won the Hockenheim round of the international Porsche Mobil1 Supercup as a guest driver, not only snatched the best starting position for the half-time race of the Carrera Cup Deutschland, but also further improved his title chances. His strongest rival, Nick Tandy (Konrad Motorsport), only takes up round five from fifth position. After making an excellent start into the season, the newcomer from Great Britain struggled with the Nürburgring at all training sessions and for the first time this season missed out on a spot in the first two grid rows.