Preview: Eight-way title fight continues at the Eifel
The final leg of the 2017 DTM season starts this weekend with the series heading to the Nürburgring, with Audi’s Mattias Ekström leading an pack of eight championship contenders.
The Swede leads the standings with 128 points to his tally, 14 and 18 ahead of fellow Audi drivers René Rast and Mike Rockenfeller respectively. The Nürburgring weekend will pose a difficult challenge for the Ingolstadt-based manufacturer, with the Audi RS 5 DTMs the heaviest cars on track.
“We’re going to have an extremely difficult time especially in qualifying, but those who know me know that I always fight and never give up,” said Ekström.
Timo Glock is the main challenger for BMW Motorsport, currently in fourth position in the championship, 24 points behind Ekström, followed by BMW team-mate Maxime Martin.
Lucas Auer, who started the season on top form, is the best-placed driver for Mercedes AMG in sixth, 29 points behind the leader. The Austrian managed to extract the most of his C63 DTM last year to be significantly faster than his team-mates, scoring the pole position on Sunday.
“I’m really looking forward to the Nürburgring where I’ve already enjoyed success in the past,” said Auer, with a return to top form for the title fight as a target. “I’ll try to build on that next weekend, but the most important thing is to secure points and attack again in the final sprint to the end of the season.”
Jamie Green (Audi) and reigning champion Marco Wittmann (BMW) are also in the title chase with 99 and 93 points respectively.
The 3.629km track located at the Eifel mountains presents a combination of fast corners, including the last chicane, with slow hairpins, as well as a long straight, where the cars reach 240km/h. The Nürburgring presents a low grip tarmac, making the key tyre warming phase even more important, but also offering less tyre degradation than Zandvoort.
Audi Sport lead the manufacturers championship on 518 points, 113 ahead of BMW Motorsport and 157 ahead of Mercedes AMG. The six RS 5 DTMs on track will start the weekend with a base weight of 1,132.5kg, ten more than the C63 DTMs. BMW will again start the weekend with a weight advantage, with the M4 DTMs on 1,107.5kg.
Dieter Gass, head of Audi Sport, is not deterred by what looks like ‘mission impossible’ at the Eifel: “Our philosophy is: you don’t have a chance – so use it! In spite of the difficult situation at the Nürburgring, we have to try to score important points and not exclusively focus on victories or the podium.”
Timetable
Friday 8th September
17:00 – Free Practice 1
Saturday 9th September
09:00 – Free Practice 2
11:40 – Qualifying for Race 1
14:48 – Race 1 (55 minutes plus one lap)
Sunday 10th September
09:10 – Free Practice 3
12:00 – Qualifying for Race 2
15:18 – Race 2 (55 minutes plus one lap)
