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Showdown at the DTM finale: Everyone is chasing René Rast

  • Finale to a great season: DTM starts again at Hockenheim on 4th to 6th October
  • Guest starters from the Far East: Lexus, Honda and Nissan will each send a car to the race
  • Modernity meets history: The Touring Car Classics enrich the supporting programme

“Time flies when you’re having fun,” says the Englishman, and he could well mean the DTM 2019 with this saying, which is also common in Germany. The first season of the “new” era with the 600 hp turbo engines has barely begun at the Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg and, in a good four weeks’ time, from 4th to 6th October, the final weekend will already be on the agenda in the very same place.

And what a season it’s been! The new generation of DTM cars has delivered what fans and active drivers had hoped for in every respect. Difficult-to-drive, powerful racing cars with reduced aerodynamics and a tendency towards significantly greater tyre wear, along with technical overtaking aids such as push-to-pass (short-term increase in fuel flow rate) and the drag reduction system (flat areas of the rear wing for reduced drag), as well as the well-known enormous power density, demanded everything from the 18 drivers from Aston Martin, Audi and BMW. And the task was to understand and control the complex turbo technology – which, as expected, was not possible in every phase of the season. This led to one or two technical problems.

But the most important thing was that the DTM 2019 enchanted the fans with everything that makes a racer’s heart beat faster – tough door-to-door battles in which the cars shed one or two add-on parts, visually spectacular racing cars that virtually pulverised the old track records on all of the tracks, and great variety in the field. Six different racing drivers won one of the 14 races so far, and just as many drivers put their cars in pole position as the fastest in training at least once.

Nevertheless, an old acquaintance emerged as a clear benchmark at the top: René Rast. The 32-year-old Mindener from Audi Sport Team Rosberg, the DTM Champion 2017, won five races, was in pole position six times and leads the standings with 234 points – even though his impressive track record for the season also shows three retirements. His closest rival, brand colleague Nico Müller (Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline), on the other hand, is consistency personified. The 27-year-old from Switzerland was the only driver in the field to score points in all 14 races, two of which he won. He is 20 points behind Rast before the last two race weekends at the Nürburgring and Hockenheim. BMW spearhead Marco Wittmann even clinched four victories and pole positions this year. However, the DTM Champion of 2014 and 2016 had some problems with the consistency of his results, meaning that the 29-year-old Fürther from BMW Team RMG is already 67 points behind Rast in the overall standings. No reason, however, to give up hope: A total of 112 points are still up for grabs at the Nürburgring and in Hockenheim.

And even though they have been denied a podium position in their first season so far, the DTM newcomers from Aston Martin have won the hearts of the fans right from the start – with the beautiful Vantage DTM and courageous performances by the drivers Paul Di Resta, Daniel Juncadella, Jake Dennis and Ferdinand von Habsburg, culminating in a highly respectable sixth place at Zolder (Dennis) and at the Norisring (Juncadella). And, in many cases, for example at the home race of the British brand in Brands Hatch, a place on the podium would have been possible with a little more luck.

Guest starters from the Japanese Championship

The spectacular events at the DTM season finale on the 4.5-kilometre Grand Prix circuit of the Hockenheimring will be made even more exciting by the fact that three cars from the Japanese SUPER GT Series, one each from Honda, Nissan and Lexus, will make the long journey to Baden in order to face the German premium competition – just for fun, of course. The guest event serves as a kind of dress rehearsal for an additional highlight of the season: the first official meeting of the racing cars from DTM and SUPER GT at the “SUPER GT x DTM Dream Race” on 23rd/24th November in Fuji, Japan.

Great supporting programme with the Touring Car Classics

As always, the DTM supporting programme is not just for decoration. The races of the Audi Sport Seyffarth R8 LMS Cup and the Formula Renault Eurocup guarantee action and spectacle on the track, as do the Touring Car Classics. When the distinguished DTM cars – such as the Mercedes-Benz 190E Evo 2 or BMW M3 E30 and the spectacular Class 1 touring cars of Alfa Romeo and Mercedes from the DTM and ITC years 1994 to 1996 – return to the site of historic racing battles, goose bumps are guaranteed. And not just for older DTM fans.

Top offer for the whole family: Tickets are still available at the box offices

Tickets in all categories for the DTM finale 2019 are still available in advance and on the day at the racetrack box office. The offer covers all of your needs. A trial run on Friday starts at 10 euros, the weekend tickets start at 44 euros. Especially family-friendly: An adult can take up to three children up to the age of 14 free of charge with their ticket in the lowest category. The free tickets for these children can be obtained at the box office on the day. For higher-priced ticket categories, tickets for children can be purchased at half price. Access to the drivers’ paddock is generally included with all of the tickets – while stocks last.

The tickets can be ordered via the official website www.dtm.com/tickets and the hotline 01806 386 386 (€0.20/call incl. VAT from the German landline network, max. €0.60/call incl. VAT from the German mobile network) from Monday to Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Tickets can also be booked via the Hockenheimring hotline on +49 (0)6205 950 222.

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