Hello! A couple of weeks ago started the regular season of German class racing DTM. This is the first season for the long history of racing, when there will not be a Mercedes Benz team in it. Yes, this will have to accept, last season was the last for the concern from Munich and now we will have to watch the struggle between BMW and Audi, which in the absence of such a strong competitor cheered. I would like to hope that the newcomer DTM - Aston Martin still intervene in this fight, but so far they can not get close to the podium. The weekend at Hockenheim was almost entirely the Audi team. The first race ended with the victory of Marco Wittman on the BMW, the second and third places were taken by Mike Rockenfeller and Robin Frijns, respectively. Both riders perform at Audi. On Saturday, the best of the R-Motorsport Aston Martin team was Dani Juncadella, he finished ninth. The podium of the second race was entirely the team from Ingolstadt, the vice-champion Rene Rast won a victory, Nico Muller and Robin Frijns took second and third places respectively. Paul Di Resta was the best in the team of Aston Martin, he took the 7th place.
Well, now go directly to the weekend at Zolder, which, after a long break, returns to the DTM race calendar. On Saturday, Philip Eng celebrated his success at the birthplace of DTM races. In this he was helped by a safety car that appeared in the middle of the race on the track. An early pit stop helped him take the lead in the race and win the victory. Moreover, this victory actually became home for the BMW Team RBM team, which is based in Mechelen, 72 kilometers from Zolder. Finishing second Joel Eriksen had a long time to restrain the onslaught of Nico Muller, but ultimately he managed to do it. Paul Di Resta and Ferdinand Habsburg brought the next points to the Aston Martin team in eighth and ninth places. Starting from pole position, Marco Wittmann came to the finish line 7th.
In qualifying races on Sunday, Sheldon van de Linde won the pole position. For a 20-year-old South African rider, this is the first pole in his career. Newcomer DTM shows good speed wins the struggle in confrontations with more experienced rivals, such as in the first race in Zolder, where even after leaving the gravel, he kept his position. But unfortunately in the race he failed to repeat this achievement, he finished only fifth. At the 11th round, Rene Rast walked around him, who eventually won the second race in Zolder. Second place in the race took Philip Eng. Once again making his way to the podium, the young Austrian became the new leader of the championship. After a tense struggle on the last lap, Jamie Green reiterated his position on the podium by third. Jake Dennis was finally able to bring the team Aston Martin to the fight in the top-5, taking sixth place and by the way he was the only team who got to the finish line. All three other cars did not finish. In this race, there was also a safety car, which eventually reduced the race to 4 laps due to the incident between Marco Wittmann and Robin Frijns, who left the last one on the grass.
June 7 DTM will go to Italy at Misano.
Photos taken from dtm.com
