Photo: DTM Media

Championship heat turns up in Britain

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The fast and short Brands Hatch is next up for the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters. The championship enters the final part of the season and the heat has been turned up on Audi to catch up in the championship.

Mercedes-driver Bruno Spengler has got a sizeable lead in the championship and his two closest rivals, Gary Paffett and Paul Di Resta, are manufacturer colleagues.

Audi’s best hope so far is Mattias Ekström in fourth position, 16 points behind the championship lead. While the Swede gained six points on Spengler in the previous race, Paffett and Di Resta pulled away pointswise as well as showing a superior pace in the race.

Brands Hatch has in the past neither favored Mercedes nor Audi. Since the DTM made its debut on the British track in 2006, the two manufactures has taken turns each year on winning the race. Di Resta won the race last year, so statistically an Audi driver should be on top this weekend.

DTM uses the shorter indy circuit of Brands Hatch, a layout the DTM cars laps in just over 42 seconds. The races are often close, the two previous years has got an average gap between first and second over the finish line of 0.845 seconds.

Zandvoort race winner Paffett is hoping to add another victory to his belt in his home race this weekend.

“The race at Brands Hatch is on my home circuit and is naturally the highlight for me in the DTM every year. Spectators are offered a lot here as from most of the grandstands they can see almost the entire racetrack. My victory at Zandvoort gives me the additional motivation to close the points gap to Bruno right here just 50 kilometres from my front door,” said Paffett.

Timo Scheider is the last Audi driver to have won at Brands Hatch and the reigning champion is hoping to make up for the pole position at Zandvoort that went nowhere.

“Brands Hatch no doubt is a track that suited me really well in the past two years. I won there, started from pole and finished in second place as well. So I’ve got very fond memories of this circuit. I’m traveling to Brands Hatch with a lot of motivation, particularly after my pole position and recovery in the race at Zandvoort. We’re hoping to be able to continue this performance,” said Scheider.