Photo: DTM Media

Sixth race – sixth winner?

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The sixth round of the 2007 DTM will be staged at Mugello, Italy, 30 kilometres north of Florence this coming weekend. Five different drivers won the five races so far, among them were four Mercedes-Benz C-Class drivers – the most recent one was Bruno Spengler (2007 DaimlerChrysler Bank AMG Mercedes C-Class) who won at the Norisring two and a half weeks ago.

Prior to the race in Tuscany, Bernd Schneider (2007 Genuine Parts AMG Mercedes C-Class) who ended up second in the last race in Nuremberg, leads the overall ranking with 25.5 points. He is followed by Mattias Ekström (24 points) and Martin Tomczyk (20 points, both Audi) in second and third positions respectively whilst Bruno Spengler had moved up to fourth with 17 points following his first victory of the year in Nuremberg.

For their fans in Italy, the DTM offer an attractive activity programme: Ferrari test driver Luca Badoer will drive demonstration runs with this year’s Formula 1 Ferrari F2007. Four-times 250-cc motorbike World Champion Max Biaggi will show his riding skills with a Suzuki superbike.
Due to the broadcast of the Tour de France, the race will be started only at 17:35 h (instead of 14:00 h), as German TV station ARD will broadcast both events LIVE.

After the first half of the season, the top six drivers in the championship are within 9.5 points, including two more Mercedes-Benz drivers behind Bernd and Bruno: Gary Paffett (2006 Laureus AMG Mercedes C-Class) is fifth with 16.5 points followed by Paul di Resta (2005 JAWA4U.de AMG Mercedes C-Class) with 16 points in sixth place.

Since the point scoring in the DTM has been adjusted to that of Formula 1 in 2002, the top six after the first five races have never been closer together than now. The closest gaps so far have been 19 points between leader Christijan Albers (36 points) and Mattias Ekström (17), who had been sixth at that point of the 2003 championship.

Not only saw the 2007 DTM five different race winners, there have also been four different leaders of the championship. Mattias Ekström (Audi) who was first of the ranking after Hockenheim and Oschersleben (tied on points with Paul di Resta and Martin Tomczyk) was followed by di Resta (Lausitzring), Tomczyk (Brands Hatch) and now Bernd Schneider.