All or nothing for René Rast and Nico Müller at the Hockenheim season finale
The Hockenheimring plays host to the ninth and final round of the 2020 DTM season, which has run across just 100 days as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
All the titles will go to Audi Sport regardless of what happens across the the weekend, with René Rast and Nico Müller taking their battle for the drivers title to the wire, and Robin Frijns ready to take advantage should the leading pair run into trouble.
Abt Sportsline team-mates Müller and Frijns have dominated most of the season, with the Swiss driver leading the championship up to the penultimate round at Zolder, and Frijns scoring his maiden victory in the series and then quickly adding two more wins to remain firmly in the fight – helped along the way by an impressive qualifying record.
Team Rosberg’s defending champion Rast however, made the most of the cool temperatures in the last two rounds at Zolder to score four straight wins and 109 from a possible 112 points to head to the season finale as the championship leader for the first time this season with 304 points, 19 ahead of Müller and 41 clear of Frijns.
“There’s only one direction; you can fully attack and just give everything to turn everything around again,” said Müller ahead of the Hockenheim date. “It won’t be easy, but we still have a very good chance.”
Rast went level with Mattias Ekström as Audi Sport’s most successful DTM driver when scoring his 23rd win in the series at Zolder two weeks ago, but feels he would like to take the top spot before the Ingolstadt-based manufacturer ends its involvement in the series after the end of the season.
“This would be my third DTM title,” added Rast. “I would be the only Audi driver with three titles and one of the best three DTM drivers in history.”
The event at the Baden-Wüttemberg track will also be the last one for the Class 1 cars, with the DTM moving to GT Pro regulations and a customer racing-based competition next year. Audi has dominated the season, with BMW also bidding farewell to its works involvement in the DTM and with a less bright outcome.
“Hockenheim marks the end of what has been a difficult season in general,” said exiting BMW Motorsport director Jens Marquardt. “It has been dominated by the coronavirus pandemic and the season has not panned out as we hoped in terms of results. With this in mind, we will once again do our very best to ensure we end on a high at the finale and give our BMW M4 DTM a worthy send-off.”
Timetable
Friday 6 November
13:00 – Free Practice 1
16:20 – Free Practice 2
Saturday 7 November
10:30 – Qualifying for Race 1
13:30 – Race 1 (55 minutes plus one lap)
Sunday 8 November
10:30 – Qualifying for Race 2
13:30 – Race 2 (55 minutes plus one lap)
