The DTM is coming to Germany, together with Kelvin van der Linde from Team ABT Sportsline as the championship leader. We remember: At the season opener at Monza, the DTM rookie won Sunday’s race with the ABT Audi R8 LMS on his 25th birthday and thus took over the top spot in the drivers’ standings.
Now the Lausitzring is on the agenda (Saturday and Sunday, both races live on SAT.1 and on ran.de from 1 p.m.). The aim: to defend first place in the drivers’ championship and, if possible, to take the lead in the teams’ championship.
The team around Thomas Biermaier and Hans-Jürgen Abt knows how to win DTM races at the Lausitzring. The circuit has been an integral part of the DTM calendar since 2000. ABT has been part of the popular racing series for just as long. The team from Kempten has already celebrated five victories at the Lausitzring and taken 26 podiums in 28 DTM races. But, there are also painful memories.
The premiere in 2000 literally fell into the water. On race day, it rained so heavily that the still fresh asphalt could not absorb the sheer volume of water. After eight laps behind the safety car, the red flag came out.
In 2003, the DTM wanted to use the banking of the tri-oval for the first corner. The team does not have good memories of the track variant, which is also planned for this year: The front right tires of the Abt Audi TT-R driven by Christian Abt and Laurent Aiello burst in quick succession during the first practice session, because they could not cope with the high loads due to the banking. The subsequent impacts against the wall were so severe that the two cars could not be repaired on site and the then Audi juniors, Martin Tomczyk and Peter Terting, had to relinquish their cars for their teammates. For the rest of the weekend, the “normal” track variant was used again.
Mattias Ekström was the main scorer of podium finishes. In 2001, the Swede clinched his first DTM podium at the Lausitzring, when he moved forward from 19th on the grid, after suffering suspension failure in the sprint. In total, the ABT driver stood on the podium ten times at the Lausitzring, twice at the very top (2004 and 2005). Both victories were closely linked to his favorite rival Gary Paffett: in 2004 Ekström was retroactively declared the winner, because the Briton did not have enough fuel in the tank after crossing the finish line.
In 2005, the two title contenders drove bumper-to-bumper around the circuit for practically the entire race. Thanks to a perfect strategy, quick pit stops and an absolutely flawless drive, Ekström managed to keep Paffett behind him.
Miguel Molina (2016) and Nico Müller (2019 and 2020) also took Lausitzring victories for ABT Sportsline. Müller was also part of the closest finish in DTM history: In the second of the total of four Lausitzring races of the 2020 COVID-19 season, René Rast and Nico Müller crossed the finish line side by side in their two Audi RS 5 DTM cars. 0.089 seconds separated the two Audi drivers. The only previous finish that was this close in the DTM was at the Norisring back in 1996.
Close finishes, hard-fought battles and collisions are not uncommon in the DTM at the Lausitzring. In 2007, there was total confusion, because the safety car drove onto the track in the middle of the field after an accident, causing several drivers to gain a lap.
There are also incidents in the very wide pit lane from time to time. In 2006, Mattias Ekström stopped on the penultimate lap after running out of fuel, while he was fighting for another victory. At that time in the DTM, refueling was still done with cans. At the second stop, the ABT mechanics changed the four wheels so quickly that not enough petrol had flowed into the tank in the available time. In 2014, Ekström had to retire due to the left-front wheel not having been fitted properly during the pit stop.
Much worse was an incident in the 2016 season, when one of Edoardo Mortara’s mechanics broke his right foot during a pit stop.
The fact that the pit stops are not without danger in the 2021 DTM was shown at the season opener: On his way to victory in Monza, a mechanic from the neighboring BMW team ran right in front of Kelvin van der Linde’s car in the pit lane, fortunately without any consequences.
