DTM mid-term report (Part 1)
Following the fifth round of the DTM season at the Norisring, the series’ will start the second half of 2013 in Moscow on the weekend of August 2nd.
However, in the three week break between the two events, TouringCarTimes decided to bang heads, spend some time on Skype, and agree on a two part analysis about the DTM’s top-10 performers so far this season.
Part 1:
1. Gary Paffett: HWA Mercedes (Car #3)
The Briton could easily have been forgiven for letting his head drop in 2013, after his final round title defeat last season. However, fifth place in the championship and 24 points behind series’ leader, Mike Rockenfeller, are not a fair representation of Paffett’s season as he has driven impeccably from the off. The 2005 DTM champion has extracted the maximum from the C-Coupe, which throughout the year, appeared to have strong race pace, but until the Lausitzring where he won, was far from the class of the field in qualifying. The only blot in his copybook was the double accident with Edoardo Mortara at the Norisring. Don’t be surprised if he has clawed back the 24 point deficit back to Rockenfeller come the season ender at Hockenheim.
2. Mike Rockenfeller: Phoenix Audi (Car #19)
In 2012, Rockenfeller finished the best placed of the Audi drivers almost by stealth. He didn’t win a race, and wasn’t always necessarily the fastest, but he turned in consistent points and podiums to finish fourth in the title race. Once again, the situation seems to be the same in 2013, but the 2010 Le Mans winner has stepped his evident speed up, scored points in every round, taken a pole-to-flag victory at Brands Hatch, and challenged Gary Paffett for the win at the Lausitzring after qualifying sixth. Following his stellar performances this season, Rockenfeller now heads the drivers’ standings ahead of reigning champion, Bruno Spengler, with 71 points to 69.
3. Christian Vietoris: HWA Mercedes (Car #9)
Question marks surrounded the 24-year-old on the eve of the 2013 season opener at Hockenheim, following an underwhelming performance with the full-blooded HWA Mercedes’ outfit in 2012. For example, when Vietoris was a pole contender at the Hockenheim season opener, a reaction in the press-room was “Vietoris? Oh, where did that come from?” However, the Hockenheim weekend wasn’t a one-off, and Vietoris has continually put in mature performances, weekend in, weekend out, which has seen him score three podiums and one pole position. Come the half-way point of 2013, he finds himself as the best of the Mercedes drivers with third place in the championship and 58 points.
4. Bruno Spengler: BMW Team Schnitzer (Car #1)
The 2012 DTM champion has, unsurprisingly, performed as the best of the BMW drivers in 2013, and his season so far is almost a mirror image of last season, with a few podiums and a victory come the season’s mid-point. However, Spengler, has been somewhat anonymous in recent races with just a seventh at the Lausitzring, and a fifth place at the Norisring. However, he has been the best placed of the Munich manufacturer’s drivers in those races, which shows the level of performance he is operating at to keep his title. There are no questions surrounding the Canadian’s performances, but whether BMW can regain the lost ground from recent races back to its rivals, is another issue.
5. Robert Wickens: HWA Mercedes (Car #10)
Another of the Mercedes young drivers, Wickens, like team-mate Christian Vietoris, has really upped his game this and has been only other Mercedes driver to take victory for the Stuttgart manufacturer in 2013. Brands Hatch appeared to be the turning point in the Canadian’s season after he took his first DTM podium with third place. Despite finishing 12th in the following round at the Red Bull Ring, Wickens then finished fourth at the Lausitzring, and following Mattias Ekström’s disqualification from the Norisring, took his maiden DTM win on a weekend where he also took pole position.
