The German Touring Car Series kicks off its second half this weekend in Italy. The site will be the Circuito de Mugello which winds through Tuscany, and marks the return of the DTM to Italy for the first time since 2004. That year, the series visited Adria Raceway and the winner was current championship contender Mattias Ekström.
Speaking of Ekström he is coming off a 3rd place finish at the Norisring and currently lies just 1.5 points behind championship leader Bernd Schneider. His Audi team mate Martin Tomczyk is third. The points tally of the duo has given Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline a 1.5 point advantage in the Teams Championship.
Their rivals, for both the drivers title and teams title is the Original Teile/DC Bank Mercedes squad of Schneider and Bruno Spengler. At the Norisring, it was a 1-2 finish for the team, with Spengler winning his first race of the year. Those points moved him up to 4th in the championship, but more importantly his team mate took over the lead in the drivers chase. Schneider is looking to pick up his 5th title in the "New" DTM.
Other drivers to watch include 2005 champion Gary Paffett, Mercedes driver Jamie Green and Audi driver Tom Kristensen. The Dane is coming off a 5th place finish at the Norisring, his first race since a big crash in the season opener at Hockenheim. Paul di Resta is looking to get back on track after scoring no points the last two races. Still he sits in 6th overall.
There have been 5 winners in five races so far, and 6 drivers within 10 points of the championship leader. Although Mugello is still a relative unknown, we do know that the title chase could receive a serious shakeup in Italy this weekend. Don't forget to check out all the action at www.dtm.de.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment