Photo: DTM Media

Nürburgring preview: All to play for in the Eifel

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After its journey to Russia, the DTM heads back to more familiar ground at the Nürburgring this week.

Located in Germany’s Eifel region, the 3.6 kilometre track has been on the DTM’s calendar in both ‘old’ and ‘new’ guises since 2001, and over the last 13-seasons, has seen Mercedes have the highest strike rate with six victories.

Until Moscow, the DTM saw five different winners from five different rounds and made predicting a winner a rather difficult affair. However, with series leader, Mike Rockenfeller, taking the full 25 points ahead of  last year’s Nurburgring winner, BMW’s Bruno Spengler, a clear pattern has started to emerge in Rockenfeller’s favour, as he is the only driver to have won more than once this season.

Rockenfeller will be Audi’s ‘championship’ driver, so for Ingolstadt to claim its first drivers’ championship since 2009, which came courtesy of Timo Scheider, then all of their effort will be thrown behind him in order for him to extend his 27 point lead over Spengler, and 30 points over Mercedes’ Gary Paffett.

However, intriguing as the championship battle is at the head of the pack, it’s what is happening behind that makes for more compelling news.

If you’ve been following the season, then since the summer break, Mattias Ekström has been the quickest driver. Both he and his race engineer, Florian Modlinger, have made great strides with Audi’s RS5 in the aero department. So much so, that had the Swede not been stripped of his Norisring victory, then even with conceding the win to stable-mate Rockenfeller in Moscow, he would have been third in the drivers’ championship on 63 points.

Then there is the matter of BMW, who in recent races, have been far from the dominant force that the majority of the paddock believed them to be in the opening rounds of this season.

Bruno Spengler has not won since the Red Bull Ring in June, and in the last two rounds, has scored just 14 points from a possible 50. However, the French-Canadian has won around the Nurburgring three times in his DTM career (twice with Mercedes, once with BMW) so will be intent on clawing back any lost ground to Rockenfeller in the title race.

Furthermore, Martin Tomczyk, a man who has won twice in the Eifel, will be itching to break into the top-10; should he not, then a year would have gone by since he last scored a point in the DTM.

With just four rounds to go, then strategy is likely to play a major role this weekend as the championship hots up, but it’s not going to make it dull, is it?

Of course it’ll be exciting, but just don’t expect Angela Merkel to halt qualifying in a fly-past.

Nürburgring facts:

Track length: 3.6 kilometers

Laps: 49

Lap Record: Bruno Spengler, Mercedes-Benz, 1m24,372s (2010)

Weather: Unpredictable

Previous winners:

2001: Laurent Aiello (Abt-Audi)
2002: Uwe Alzen (Mercedes-Benz)
2003: Christijan Albers (Mercedes-Benz)
2004: Gary Paffett (Mercedes-Benz)
2005: Mattias Ekström (Audi)
2006: Bruno Spengler (Mercedes-Benz)
2007: Martin Tomczyk (Audi)
2008: Bernd Schneider (Mercedes-Benz)
2009: Martin Tomczyk (Audi)
2010: Bruno Spengler (Mercedes-Benz)
2011: Mattias Ekström (Audi)
2012: Bruno Spengler (BMW)