DTM Spielberg 2012 - The preview

N after three races, the DTM is already almost a third of Season over. With only ten races, the title contenders can hardly afford to make one mistake this season. Only Gary Paffett could take things a little easier now. The Mercedes driver clearly leads the ranking with 25 points. Even if he failed, he would still be in front.

'The season could hardly have started better,' said Paffett happily before the trip to Austria. 'Our car works first class and has been fast on all types of track so far. However, new challenges await us in Spielberg. The track has completely different characteristics than Brands Hatch last time.'

Unstoppable Paffett in the race

So far, the competition has not found an antidote to Mercedes. The black C-Class Coupé from Paffett has so far played in a league of its own, especially when it comes to racing space. Recently, only Bruno Spengler was able to put the championship leaders under some pressure. If the Canadian's first title is to finally work out, he'll have to slowly make up ground. 'The Red Bull-Ring is a really great and demanding circuit,' said the BMW driver, looking forward to it upcoming races. 'The route is versatile, offers fast corners and also slower sections. It goes up and downhill.' It is important here to find a good aerodynamic compromise between downforce and top speed. According to Spengler, there are good opportunities to overtake between turns one, two and three - if the car is on the brakes well.

Audi with room for improvement

Last year it didn't work out ideally for Spengler. The DTM veteran drove the fastest race lap, but ended up only fourth. His current team-mate Martin Tomczyk won twelve months ago. At that time, the master was still working for Audi. This season, on the other hand, the A5 fleet did not come out of the starting blocks optimally. Especially with full tanks, there is still room for improvement.

Mattias Ekström has at least established himself in the drivers' standings in the Paffett chasing field with three top five results. At the second foreign appearance of the year, the Swede should now aim for one of the top podium positions. In the previous year, the Red Bull driver experienced a major bankruptcy at the Red Bull Ring. In the rain qualifying, Ekström slipped into the gang and had to start from the back.

Nonetheless, 'Ekki' is optimisticSpielberg. 'I have fond memories of the good old days there. Last year was an exception - I think it was the worst race of my entire career. One thing I know for sure: you can't top it, everything can only get better. Us will analyze where we can improve in order to finally be able to fight for the big points again. '

Queen postpones DTM race start in Spielberg

After a long break, the reopened track took place in Last year again a place in the DTM calendar. The DTM guest appearance caused a state of emergency for the fans. All 48,000 places around the picturesque course were sold out. This year, too, the organizers expect an impressive backdrop on the 4.326-kilometer-long slope.

The spectators have to get used to a slightly different start time at the weekend. Because of the British Queen's 60th anniversary of the throne, for which the 'Erste' is planning a special broadcast immediately after the DTM broadcast from Spielberg, the DTM race will start half an hour earlier than usual at 1.30 p.m.