With just two races remaining in the current Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters season, Audi Sport’s Edoardo Mortara has a chance to secure his maiden title, as he heads to the Hockenheimring this weekend just 14 points adrift of current leader Marco Wittmann.
The Italian driver is the only one to have taken four race wins this year, having been given a better chance of hoisting aloft the champion’s glass trophy. This was after Wittmann was excluded from the feature race at the Hungaroring three weeks ago.
“I look forward to the grand finale and am traveling to Hockenheim with optimism and full of self-confidence,” explained the Team Abt Sportsline driver, who leads the Ingolstadt assault to attempt a clean sweep of titles this year.
“We won the first race of the year there in May and should have a chance for victory in the finale as well. My Audi RS 5 DTM felt really good most recently at the Nürburgring and at Budapest.”
Following on from Mattias Ekström’s decision to miss the finale at the Baden-Württemberg circuit to compete in the penultimate round of the FIA WorldRX championship at Estering, René Rast will pilot the Red Bull-liveried RS5 DTM of the two-time champion.
However, the German will partner Timo Scheider at Ernst Moser’s Team Phoenix, following on from Rast’s experience with the outfit, and also took part in a recent two-day Hankook tyre test to get up to speed ahead of the finale.
2013 champion Mike Rockenfeller will move to Abt, and will be working alongside Mortara, Nico Müller and Miguel Molina at the Kempten-based squad.
Mortara praised the efforts of Hans-Jürgen Abt’s team, crediting their work towards reducing the gap to leader Wittmann. Abt Sportsline also have a very high chance of taking the team title, leading the standings 25 points ahead of Stefan Reinhold’s Team RMG.
“There are only 14 points separating us. Now, we’re hoping to overtake him in the final sprint. We’re not going to give up and battle up until the end,” stated Mortara, who has been in the hunt again for a first DTM title
The 29-year-old showed his candidacy early on, by taking wins at the Hockenheim opener, Norisring and the last two rounds at the Nürburgring and Hungaroring.
Jamie Green is also in the mix for his first title, having finished runner-up last year to Pascal Wehrlein, as the Briton is 39 points off Wittmann, but could factor into the final two races if the title goes out of reach.
Timetable: DTM Hockenheim Finale (All times BST + 1)
Friday 14.10.2016
1645 CEST: Free Practice 1 (30 minutes)
Saturday 15.10.2016
1050 CEST: Free Practice 2 (30 minutes)
1240 CEST: Qualifying for Race 1 (20 minutes)
1458 CEST: Race 1 (40 minutes plus 1 lap)
Sunday 16.10.2016
1055 CEST: Free Practice 3 (30 minutes)
1255 CEST: Qualifying for Race 2 (20 minutes)
1518 CEST: Race 2 (60 minutes plus 1 lap, including mandatory pitstop)