There are far too many motorsport series and seasons for there to be anywhere near a consensus pick for the best title-clinching overtake of all time.
Lewis Hamilton on Timo Glock in 2008 in Formula 1 will always be in the conversation just for the stakes and the stage, but it has competition - and there are championships, be it NASCAR or British Superbikes, that through regulations and tracks and other things feel almost custom-made to try to generate those moments.
The DTM is no stranger to a title decider, and now its GT3 era - which kicked in in 2021 - has an iconic last-lap championship overtake of its own. Its author, new series champion Ayhancan Guven, described it as "hard to beat" - and he's not wrong.
The background
As usual, the context is a big part of the story and of the appeal. Turkish driver Guven had had such an unconventional path to this moment - running out of budget in karting, turning to sim racing (he was a high-ranked Gran Turismo player), then restarting his real-life career in local racing and then amateur Porsche competition.
From there to the DTM was already a long shot. And from making the DTM to a DTM title was maybe even a longer shot - as Guven finished his first two seasons in the category 15th and 16th.
Having improved hugely, he won the most races of anyone this season, but never led the title race at any point until the chequered flag flew in the finale. Which is maybe not so surprising when you hear that a mind-boggling seven drivers went into the final race of the season in mathematical contention, with Guven fifth of those seven.
A Balance of Performance formula, like the GT3 DTM is (and like the DTM of the past also was for a long time), will make that a lot more plausible, but it was crazy all the same, and whatever the outcome it was never going to be straightforward.
The build-up
For Guven, it almost was. Second on the grid and needing to win, he shadowed Gilles Magnus's race-leading Aston Martin in the early phase of the race, then cycled into the lead via strategy.
He was, with a few minutes left, fairly comfortably in control and on course to have the rest of the results fall in his favour for the title - but race control decided it could not safely recover Magnus's stricken Aston Martin without a safety car interruption, so the race was effectively reset for the final six laps.
"I saw the car standing on the track and I told my team 'it's in a safe place', I didn't want a safety car, I saw [Marco] Wittmann was really quick. Also at the start of the race I was side by side with Rene [Rast, Wittmann's fellow BMW driver], I saw how he overtook me on the straight, so I said 'OK, is Wittmann is at my bumper, I have a big problem'."
At one point it loooked like even second place might be just about enough for Guven, with main rival - again, main rival of seven (!) rivals - Lucas Auer stranded in sixth. But ex-Formula 1 driver Jack Aitken and Jordan Pepper - both, remarkably, also title contenders - got penalised for overtaking Auer under yellow flags, and in ignoring that penalty in the hopes of arguing their way out of it and keeping their slim title hopes alive, they both ensured they would be black-flagged.
Auer would be fourth, so Guven needed to win. Yet, after the restart, he was only just about hanging on - coming under pressure, as he expected, from two-time champion Wittmann.
Wittmann, ludicrously, was an eighth title contender coming into the final day of the season, but needed to pick up qualifying bonus points to keep his title hopes alive, and instead qualified 17th. Yet a great first lap, an early first stop and late second stop in the two-stop race got him all the way up to second - and he had more than Guven in the closing stages.
Guven was managing things well after the restart, with Wittmann closing in in the early corners but then always dropping back to about six-or-seven tenths at the line. So starting the final lap Wittmann was again seven tenths back, but the BMW very quickly got into attack range - which Guven would partly attribute to him being too conservative through Turn 1 to not risk a track limits breach.
"He was too close to me coming into Turn 6 [the hairpin], and then yeah, I needed to defend fully, with a small contact," Guven recalled. "Then in the straight to Turn 8 [Mercedes corner] again he was coming, I needed to defend again. Then there was a little contact exiting Turn 8 that unsettled myself, then Marco did a crossover..."
The move
That final overtake 🤯 @AyhancanGuven pic.twitter.com/g4ZpahApU9
— Motorsport.tv (@MotorsportTV_UK) October 6, 2025
Guven's speed out of the Mercedes corner was not good due to his defensive line, so while he chopped across Wittmann through the next sequence Wittmann's momentum meant he was in serious trouble on the run to the Mobil 1 corner, forcing the BMW driver as far towards the right-side wall as he could but unable to pinch off the room was Wittmann was far enough alongside.
"I think I did a good move, a fair move, despite seeing the wall coming closer and closer, which I think at some point was very close," said Wittmann.
Wittmann now had the line into Mobil 1 and was first through the corner, looking to have landed a death blow to Guven's title aspirations.
Guven had made a point not to look close at the title aspirations, but in that moment he had all the info he needed.
"I was not calculating, but my engineer told me 'Can, you need to win'," he recalled. "When Marco was overtaking me between [Turns] 10 and 11, he was telling me 'you need to win'."
Wittmann stayed on the outside kerb through the corner, yet Guven used that and the green patch separating the track and the gravel trap so got a 'slingshot' run coming out. Whether covering that off specifically or just preparing the next corner as normal, Wittmann moved inside-to-outside ahead of the corner coming up immediately after, Sachs, which was all the invitation Guven needed .
He darted to the inside, sticking the nose of his Porsche into a gap that was only theoretically there, spending most of the corner entry on the grass, then pushing Wittmann out wide as he climbed over the kerb, Wittmann trying a cut-back move out of the corner to no avail.
A couple more nervy corners and the race - and the championship - were Guven's.
It was one of the wildest moves this author can remember even outside of the context, and also, very clearly, on the very-very-very razor's edge of legality.
"I made a good exit, I think Marco moved a bit and then I saw the room and I said 'OK, I know the rules that you're not allowed to move under braking'," Guven recounted.
"I need to watch [the footage] but I think there was 0.9 car lengths' room. I said 'OK, this is my room'. Honestly, I braked as late as possible and just made the corner."
"Obviously two drivers, two different opinions probably for the Sachs corner," said Wittmann.
"I think we can discuss for hours and ages there. For me, [what I did] was not really moving under braking, I think there was not really a gap [for Guven] - and I'm not sure if I wouldn't have been there he would've made the corner. But anyway, doesn't matter."
According to Motorsport-Total, the stewards concurred with Guven's assessment - so the win, and the title, did not change hands after the flag.
Redemption
The DTM has had good title races in the last couple of races, but this blockbuster conclusion was a much-needed palette-cleanser to the unsavoury events of the first GT3 season, 2021 - when now-Formula 1 driver Liam Lawson was taken out of contention by a title rival on the opening lap, then had to watch as the title got team-ordered out of his hands.
That was no good. This, of course, was controversial, too, and you have every right to bristle at the legality of the move - but it was incredibly exciting and there is, at least, a reasonable explanation for it being allowed to stand. Plus, Guven was going to have it anyway if not for the late-race safety car, while him pulling off the overtake meant the championship would not have to go down to two (very controversial) post-race penalties for drivers behind.
"I think this is a crazy final. I think it's hard to beat," Guven said.
Again, he's right. It is hard to beat - and not just for the DTM itself.
