The good thing about your regular modern race series is that if there are those who win consistently over the course of a few legs, there will be various penalties for them in order to level the playing field. This may come in the form of position or weight, but in general this makes for better racing: if a group of drivers is far quicker than the field, the race series becomes rather boring.
So it was inevitable that Audi, who had been dominating through the previous DTM legs, would have to face some rather harsh penalties when they competed at Norisring over the last weekend. With a lot of extra ballast, their cars were at a major disadvantage compared to the other teams that had not done so well in the previous rounds.
Norisring, as we described before, is a wide street circuit with a relatively simple layout; think roughly double the width of the Singapore GP track, and about triple the width of Monaco in certain areas. Being the mid-season race, it tends to be quite important for fans of DTM, and it’s a very spectator friendly track.
With sharp corners and hairpins to contend with, every bit of weight becomes a massive problem trying to carry speed through these choke points. Mercedes-AMG and BMW were both ready to pounce on the Audi contingent had they made any mistakes, and they also had the advantage of better qualifying positions throughout, leaving Audi to fight their way through the field.
Race 1 saw the drivers fighting across a greasy surface, what with a drizzling of rain to add to the action. Mercedes-AMG had the advantage at the start, with a few of their cars jockeying for top position and mixing it up with Rockenfeller in his yellow-liveried Audi RS5. But apart from a brief spat with BMW’s Spengler and a mild contact incident between 2 of the Mercedes-AMG cars, Mercedes-AMG pulled a clean sweep from 1st to 4th places.
With the skies clearing up for Race 2 the following day, things started to heat up (literally) with a more even mix of drivers among the front of the grid. Once again, Audi was put at a major disadvantage with their weight penalties, but they managed to hold on to their positions through most of the race.
Crowd favourites Augusto Farfus and Timo Glock had to retire after a collision in turn 1, leaving 6 drivers on track to fly the BMW flag. Audi’s Ekstrom put on a good fight against Spengler, but the BMW driver managed to slip past on the penultimate lap to take the third spot on the podium. Mercedes-AMG once again managed to clinch top spot, and second place as well.
Despite the kerfuffle and the shifting of balance through the field of drivers, Audi’s Jamie Green remains at the top of the scoreboard for the season. Mercedes-AMG will be quickly closing the gap, and BMW is not far behind- but with just half a season left, will the other two brands be able to cover that lost ground and catch up on points?
