Racing resumes at Nürburgring after summer break
The Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters resumes at the legendary Nürburgring this weekend after a four week summer break. Mercedes heads the championship with Bruno Spengler in the lead, ten points ahead of Jamie Green. But history shows that the Nürburgring favors Audi.
Audi has won three times in the last five years, seriously proving the dominance last year with an Audi 1-2-3-4.
But Audi has got some catching up to do in this years championship. Mattias Ekström is the best placed Audi-driver in third, 11 points from the lead, while we have to go down to sixth position in the championship to find the second best Audi-driver, Mike Rockenfeller.
Rockenfeller is a massive 20 points from the lead, but will be hoping to take advantage of the fact that his team Phoenix has got Nürburgring as their home race, with the factory located just three kilometers from the track.
The two top Mercedes drivers of this year, Spengler and Green, have had mixed fortunes at the Nürburgring during the past three seasons. Spengler finished sixth last year, well down the order the year before but came close to winning in 2007, as he finished second, six seconds behind winning Audi-driver Martin Tomczyk.
Green on the other hand has got an impressive even finishing order, claiming fifth three years in a row.
With Mercedes having closed the gap on Audi this season speed-wise, the action should be close this weekend despite the advantage shown in the history books for Audi.
The racing at Nürburgring this weekend starts on friday at 15.10 CET with free practice, qualifying is on saturday at 13.45 and the race starts at 14.00 on sunday.
