The Season Review of 2009

The 2009 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters season was hard fought down to the wire. Featuring a mixture of intense battles, multiple records being broken, steward’s decisions and much more.

Here is the TouringCarTimes review of the 2009 DTM season.

Reigning champion, Timo Scheider, laid down his intentions from the outset of the season, by saying “I am really looking forward to this season, because for the first time, I am the one the others are trying to catch instead of the other way round. Of course, I want to defend my title and make the Audi the winning car for the third time in a row”.

A number of changes in driver line-ups, rules and the calendar greeted the start of the season.

Bernd Schneider and Christijan Albers left the series at the end of the 2008 season. Schneider went on to retirement, with Albers moving into Sportscar racing. Tom Kristensen announced that this season would be his last in the DTM.

Changes to the structure of qualifying were introduced to try and improve the spectacle of the DTM race weekend. The new format being a four-part session, with the final part being a straight shootout between the top four drivers, all on track at the same time.

The 2009 calendar had no visit to the Italian circuit of Mugello, and saw the location of the French round change. Formerly at Le Mans, the race would now be held at Dijon-Prenois.

Fantastic turnout for season launch
The 2009 season was again officially launched in the exclusive Köngsallee area of Düsseldorf, with some 210,000 fans attending the city centre exhibition.

Drivers from both Audi and Mercedes-Benz expressed their happiness at the fan turn out, and the atmosphere of the event, with Audi’s Scheider summarised by simply stating “The crowd was really impressive”.

Kristensen profits as Ekström suffers late on
The opening race of the season saw the teams head to the Hockenheimring. In what was the 100th race since the reformation of the DTM in 2000, Sweden’s Mattias Ekström set his stall out with pole position.

Ekström lead throughout the race, but late on he suffered a rear left puncture. He nursed the car back to the pits and eventually finished 7th. Kristensen profited from Ekström’s misfortune as he inherited the lead of the race, and ultimately victory. Gary Paffett was involved in an early tussle with Alexandre Prémat, and after a coming together Prémat spun out and Paffett’s bonnet became detached. Prémat and Paffett retired, and caused further chaos when it struck Ralf Schumacher’s car.

Tactical victory for Paffett
Ekström again set the fastest time in qualifying and claimed pole position with Paffett close behind, but with a five-place grid penalty for causing an avoidable accident in the opening round. Schumacher sat out qualifying whilst an engine change was made to his car, and Johannes Seidlitz missed out due to an accident during the practice session.

Despite leading in the early stages, Ekström was pushed down to third by the flag. Paffett used a combination of consistently fast times and a very long first stint with clear track to leap into the lead of the race and to take the race win, ahead of Bruno Spengler and Ekström. Ekström was put under immense pressure in the closing stages of the race as Paul Di Resta constantly sought a way past.

Green’s 2008-spec victory
At the Norisring Scheider set about claiming his first victory of 2009 with pole position in a qualifying session of mixed weather. Thunderstorms, intense sunshine and torrential rain made for an exciting qualifying session in which Scheider set the fastest time with fellow Audi driver Ekström second.

The race itself was one to keep fans sat on the very edge of their seats. Jamie Green started from seventh on the grid, but came out on top after the 80-lap race. The final four laps provided intense action at the head of the field, as the lead changed four times. Scheider dropped from first to fourth as the action unfolded, as Green, Spengler and Ekström moved into the top three.

Stewards kept busy at Zandvoort
Oliver Jarvis made DTM history by claiming his maiden pole position when the series visited Zandvoort. He became the first driver to claim a pole position in year-old specification car. Scheider and Ekström had poor qualifying sessions, as they lined up on the grid 11th and 9th respectively.

Paffett took the lead of the race on the fifteenth lap when Jarvis ran wide. He went on to claim the race win, his second of the season. Ekström crossed the line second, but a post race investigation saw him issued with a time penalty dropping him to third, after it was judged that he has been allowed to pass fellow Audi drivers Alexandre Prémat and Jarvis with little resistance, which was interpreted as team tactics.

Jarvis and Prémat were disqualified for being late for the weigh bridge check. Christian Bakkerud failed to visit the weigh bridge, and he too was disqualified. Adding to the list of penalties was Markus Winkelhock, who was disqualified when his car was found to have too little fuel in the tank during post-race checks.

Audi dominate at Oschersleben
An Audi domination in qualifying saw Kristensen lead a top five of Scheider, Martin Tomczyk, Ekström and Jarvis. The best placed Mercedes was that of Spengler in sixth place, as championship leader Paffett could only manage 12th spot on the grid.

The Audi domination continued as Scheider took victory in the race, followed by Ekström and Tomczyk. Kristensen was adjudged to have been misaligned on the grid and was issued with a drive through penalty which pushed him down the order. Mike Rockenfeller made contact with Alexandre Prémat, pushing the Frenchman off track, but Rockenfeller himself soon spun as well. Paffett salvaged some championship points with his drive from 12th to 5th.

Audi procession continues at the Nürburgring
Glorious weather greeted the DTM as the series visited the Nürburgring for the sixth round of the championship, as the entire race weekend was about one man, Martin Tomczyk. The Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline driver set the pace in every session, and took a well deserved victory.

As racing got underway, an early coming together between Ekström and Spengler caused debris to be spread across the track, which was a sign of things to come. Many incidents caused many retirements. Kristensen retired after contact with Di Resta on the opening lap. Katherine Legge retired after her car was damaged in an incident with Paffett. Alexandre Prémat ended both his own and Jarvis’ races when he collided with the Brit when competing for eighth place. Di Resta’s race ended in the gravel at turn one. As he came down the main straight, his rear wing became detached and he didn’t make the corner.

Home victory for Di Resta, as Mercedes bite back
At Brands Hatch, Paul Di Resta broke the Audi stranglehold on pole position by putting his Mercedes on top spot after a solid qualifying session, with championship protagonists Scheider, Paffett and Ekström second, sixth and seventh on the grid respectively.

Di Resta’s domination of the weekend saw him claim the victory in an exciting race on the short Indy circuit. An all British sparring match between Green and Jarvis, saw Jarvis pushed off track and Green issued with a drive through penalty. Ultimately it was Di Resta celebrating a fine victory, but in the championship hunt Scheider enjoyed quite race to finish second and claim another good points haul. Schumacher’s performance was one of solidity. He started from 11th on the grid and finished in 7th, but only after a drive through penalty had been issued for speeding in the pit lane.

Easy does it for Scheider
Kristensen put his Audi on pole position when the DTM headed to Catalunya in September, but it was his fellow Audi driver Tim Scheider who took the chequered flag in the race.

Scheider started from second but made the move on Kristensen at the first corner of the race, and from that point on he drove a solid race to take his second victory of the season, ahead of Kristensen and Tomczyk. Late in the race Ekström was pressing Paffett hard in the battle for fourth place, and contact from the Swede resulted in a warning. The battling duo allowed Brno Spengler to join in, as he too was issued with a warning, for contact with Ekström. Despite Paffett’s ferocious defending Ekström pulled alongside, but the move failed, and Ekström ended up losing fifth to Spengler.

Ekström out of luck again as Paffett takes win
As the series moved to France, and the first ever DTM visit to the Dijon-Prenois circuit, Scheider led the championship race with 53-points and a 12-point margin over Ekström. The top three in the championship had mixed fortunes in qualifying. Ekström was the highest in fourth, with Paffett eighth and Scheider way back in 16th. Mercedes’ Spengler took pole position.

Ekström led from Paffett for much of the race, but as with the opening race of the season at Hockenheim, cruel luck would rob Ekström of victory. A puncture forced the Swede to nurse his car back to the pits. As a result was out of the championship battle. Paffett inherited the lead and duly converted the gift into victory. The performance of the weekend has to be that of Scheider. From 16th on the grid he finished in sixth despite a puncture during his first stint. In total four drivers suffered punctures. Along with Ekström and Scheider, Jarvis and Kristensen were both affected. The two common factors, all cars were Audi and all punctures affected the left rear tyre.

Paffett wins the race, but to no avail
For the final round of the season, the series returned to Hockenheim with a 7-point difference between first placed Scheider and second placed Paffett in the championship standings.

Ekström claimed pole position, as he sought to take points off Paffett and help out Scheider, who had qualified second and third respectively. An intense early battle saw Paffett and Ekström fighting hard for the lead, but the fans wee robbed of the spectacle when Ekström retired on the sixth lap with a cooling problem. Schumacher again suffered with a bonnet at Hockenheim. This time it was his own which became detached, and he retired on the first lap.

The chequered flag greeted Paffett but was not enough as Scheider crossed behind him in second to secure the DTM title.

Timo is the Champion!
Despite suffering a disqualification at Zandvoort, Scheider enjoyed a strong season which displayed consistency and maturity throughout to claim his second title in as many years.

His season saw only two race victories, but a clutch of strong results backed those up, notably four second places.

Scheider finished the season as champion with 64-points. Paffett was second in the standings on 59-points, and 5 race wins.

Mercedes-Benz take Teams’ title
In terms of the DTM Teams’ classification, the Salzgitter Mercedes-Benz team merged victorious in the battle with the two Audi teams Audi Sport Team Abt and Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline.

The Mercedes team ended on 100-points, with the nearest challenger, Audi Sport Team Abt, second with 85 points.