Team ABT Sportsline travels to Zolder with mixed emotions this week for the third race weekend of the 2021 DTM season (both races start at 1 PM CEST on Saturday and Sunday, live on SAT.1 and ran.de).
The team led by Hans-Jürgen Abt and Thomas Biermaier has good, but also not so nice memories of the Belgian circuit. In 2002, Laurent Aiello and Christian Abt in the compact Abt-Audi TT-R ensured a superior 1-2 victory in the pouring rain. At that time, Zolder was the second race on the calendar and Aiello’s victory was an important step on the way to his sensational drivers’ title of the private Team ABT Sportsline against the factory teams from Mercedes-Benz and Opel.
By contrast, the wounds that Zolder left on the team from Kempten last year have not yet completely healed. Due to COVID-19, four DTM races were held at the Belgian circuit within one week. In these four races, Nico Müller lost his commanding championship lead to René Rast.
Robin Frijns also experienced two difficult weekends in 2020. After an accident with a fire, the ABT crew even had to completely rebuild his Audi RS 5 DTM on site in the Zolder paddock.
Nevertheless, Team ABT Sportsline’s Zolder record in seven DTM races so far is quite impressive: In addition to Laurent Aiello’s winner’s trophy from the 2002 season, there are six more Zolder trophies at ABT Sportsline in Kempten. In addition, today’s SAT.1 expert Martin Tomczyk secured his first DTM pole position with the Abt-Audi TT-R at Zolder in 2002.
By the way, the starting grid at Zolder in 2002 was very special: At that time, the ABT mechanics mounted Red Bull and Hasseröder cans on the endplates of the rear wings of the Abt-Audi TT-R cars for fun. Competitor Opel had found a loophole in the regulations at the time and declared a controversial widening of the rear wings as a “rear wing holder”.
Safety car deployments are not uncommon in the DTM at Zolder. Last year, Mike Rockenfeller benefited from this: Thanks to a good strategy, “Rocky” clinched second place and thus his best result of the 2020 season.
The 2013 DTM champion wants to build on this next weekend, as does championship leader Kelvin van der Linde, who describes Zolder as his favorite track on the DTM calendar. For Sophia Flörsch, Zolder is new territory. She has been preparing in the simulator.
