Audi favourites for Zandvoort
More than two million television viewers followed German TVs live broadcast on “Das Erste” of the DTM race at Mugello – a record this season. The next highlight is now on the agenda: the race at Zandvoort on the Dutch North Sea coast, to which Audi driver Mattias Ekström comes as overall leader on the last weekend in July.
The Swede has a 6.5 point lead over defending Champion Bernd Schneider (Mercedes) going into the final four races of the year. The Audi team will do everything possible on the 4.307 kilometre circuit through the dunes to strengthen its lead in the most popular international touring car race series.
The foundations are good for this: Mattias Ekström is the only driver to have won more than one DTM race to date at Zandvoort (2002 and 2004). The Audi A4 DTM also has a particularly good track record at Zandvoort with two wins from three starts (2004 and 2006). The latest generation
A4 DTM demonstrated impressively just how fast it is around fast, swooping tracks last time out at Mugello.
The majority of the Audi drivers have good memories of the race on the North Sea coast: Mattias Ekström celebrated his first DTM race win on the North Sea coast. Both Christian Abt and Timo Scheider took their maiden DTM pole positions there. Tom Kristensen won last year. Alexandre Prémat won the 2004 Formula 3 Masters, and Martin Tomczyk mounted the podium twice at Zandvoort.
Almost 80,000 fans are expected to flood through the gates and, like every year, ensure the unique Zandvoort atmosphere. “Das Erste” broadcasts qualifying and the race live and in full length directly from Zandvoort.
