Photo: DTM Media

The DTM reveals complete racing weekend format

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The 2015 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters season will feature a return to a two race format per event, as it has been long announced by ITR e.V., the series’ promoter.

Back in March, a further announcement was made, revealing that each of the two races in the weekend would have a separate, 20-minute, qualifying session.

Last season, the DTM concentrated its activity on Saturdays and Sundays, insisting on reducing the number of days for cost cutting reasons, as well as eliminating the Sunday morning warm up session.

With the plans for 2015, it soon became apparent that the Saturdays would be busy enough with their qualifying and race, to schedule two practice sessions as well. There were rumours that Fridays would be back on the DTM agenda, but nothing had been confirmed so far by ITR.

Today, the DTM organisers revealed the timetable for the season opener in Hockenheim, taking place next week at the Baden-Württemberg track. The agenda is already tightly packed, featuring the Porsche Carrera Cup Deutscheland, as well as the new Audi Sport TT Cup, plus the joint programme with the second meeting of the FIA World Rallycross.

Friday on track action for the DTM is back, with the traditional 30-minute rollout session and the first, 45-minute, free practice scheduled for the 1st of May.

Saturdays will hold an early second 45-minute practice session, with qualifying for race 1 at noon. The first race of the weekend would take place mid-afternoon, in this case, at 14:48 CEST.

Sundays would see the return of an early and short 15-minute warm up session, with qualifying for race 2 taking place mid-morning. The start of the second race would be at 13:43 CEST.

The new racing weekend format, together with an increase of the DRS opportunities during the races, the return to a single tyre compound and both races awarding full points is a bid from ITR and the manufacturers involved to increase the show and make races easier to follow and understand for the spectators, who the organisers value as the series’ main asset.