Halftime: Mercedes strong, Audi fights

With the Norisring round contested, DTM enters its season halftime. The 20 drivers racing fore Audi and Mercedes-Benz have delivered five thrilling races, with five different drivers winning a round each. In the battle of the two premium manufacturers, Mercedes leads with 4:1 wins and DTM Record Champion holds the championship lead, following the first half of the season.

Still, the balance of power is far more balanced than a look at the result sheets may make you believe.

Following a start into the season that was – according to his standards – moderate, at the best, Bernd Schneider upped the ante particularly in the fourth and fifth rounds. With his Brands Hatch win and the runner-up finish at the Norisring, the German scored 18 of the total of 25.5 points he has got on his tally to date. Furthermore, he is the only driver to have scored points in every round. Maybe this represents a good omen for a successful title defence. After all, the ‘halftime champions’ of the previous two seasons – Gary Paffett and Bernd Schneider – also succeeded in securing the title.

Audi, however, will work hard to prevent Schneider from repeating this feat. The brand’s spearhead, Mattias Ekström, lies just 1.5 points behind Schneider. Following his win in the season opener, at Hockenheim, the Swede also succeeded in scoring points on a regular basis – apart from the round held at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz. There, he finished tenth and had to leave the venue empty-handed, hence. Still, not other driver clinched as many podium finishes, in 2007, as Ekström. Following his kick-off win, the Swede finished third both at Brands Hatch and the Norisring.

Apart from Schneider and Ekström, there were two other championship leaders but the Swede proved to be the only one who succeeded in defending his championship lead, once. For DTM rookie Paul di Resta, who had taken the championship lead at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz, the following round at Brands Hatch proved to be a true zero-points disappointment – and Martin Tomczyk had to settle for a similar fate. The Rosenheimer held the lead when travelling to the Norisring and also lost it due to having failed to score: the analogies of the two cases: Championship leaders, home events, zero points due to early retirements.

Five races, five winners – the first half of the 2007 season proved to be a truly varied one. In addition to Schneider and Ekström, Gary Paffett, Mika Häkkinen and – last but not least – Bruno Spengler also succeeded in winning a race. And Paffett’s win at the Motorsport Arena Oschersleben even proved to be the very first win of a previous-year spec car in DTM’s history.