DTM season enters the finishing straight.
The 2014 season enters the finishing straight with the eighth round of the year at the Lausitzring on 14th September. The race at the 3.478-kilometre circuit could actually determine the winner of this year’s Drivers’ Championship.
After claiming his fourth win of the season at the latest race at the Nürburgring, Marco Wittmann of BMW Team RMG now has 120 points to his name – 64 more than Audi drivers Mattias Ekström and Edoardo Mortara.
Like Wittmann in the Drivers’ Championship, BMW Team RMG also leads the team competition with three races remaining this season. Team Principal Stefan Reinhold’s outfit tops the standings with 159 points after the home win in the Eifel Mountains. BMW is also sitting pretty at the top of the Manufacturers’ Championship with 302 points.
Last season’s race at the Lausitzring ended in disappointment for BMW Motorsport. BMW Team Schnitzer driver Bruno Spengler was the only BMW driver to finish in the top ten, coming home seventh. In 2012, the Canadian made history at the Lausitzring: BMW made its first appearance on the top step of the DTM podium after only the second race of its comeback season. Spengler started from pole position and, after 52 laps of racing, crossed the finish line first at the wheel of the BMW Bank M3 DTM. This success laid the foundations for Spengler’s title win at the season finale in Hockenheim. It was also BMW’s 50th victory in the DTM. Augusto Farfus finished third to complete a successful weekend for BMW.
The Lausitzring hosts the DTM for the 16th time this season. With ten different layouts, the circuit 130 kilometres south of Berlin is, along with the “Moscow Raceway”, the track with the most variants on this year’s calendar. The DTM will race on the 3.478-kilometre layout, which features twelve corners. The circuit has been a permanent fixture on the calendar since 2000. The Lausitzring is driven in an anti-clockwise direction, with the BMW drivers tackling 52 laps before they see the chequered flag.
This season, for the first time, the International German Motorcycle Championship (SUPERBIKE*IDM) lines up on the same bill as the DTM at the Lausitzring. The starting field will feature many BMW riders on BMW S 1000 RR and BMW HP4 bikes, including reigning champion Markus Reiterberger
(Credit: Bmw-motorsport.com)