DTM finale 2025 // Weekend of racing finals
- The Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg will once again host a DTM season finale from 3 to 5 October
- Nine drivers still have a chance of winning the 2025 DTM title at the big showdown on the Grand Prix circuit
- High tension in the supporting programme too – the championship has not yet been decided in any of the racing series
The 2025 DTM season is setting new standards in terms of excitement and balance. At the grand season finale from 3 to 5 October at the Hockenheimring, no fewer than nine drivers in five different makes have an intact chance of winning the championship title. These nine drivers are separated by just 29 points – with a total of 56 points still up for grabs at Hockenheim. Which means: everything is still open.
The battle for the top of the standings this year has been one of ups and downs. Three-time DTM champion René Rast in the Schubert Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 recently took the lead in the overall standings with his victory in Saturday’s race at the Red Bull Ring, but lost it again the following day after finishing 13th. A perfect example of the enormous power density in the DTM. Whoever wins on Saturday can find themselves in midfield on Sunday.
The reverse was the case for Lucas Auer in Spielberg. After a mediocre qualifying session on Saturday, the Tyrolean in the Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Mercedes-AMG Team Landgraf finished third on the podium the next day and snatched back the top spot in the standings that Rast had lost the day before. In the overall standings, the two-time winner of the season leads Jordan Pepper by seven points after 14 of 16 races. The South African, who drives a Huracán GT3 EVO for TGI Team Lamborghini by GRT, also overtook Rast in the overall standings and now has a four-point lead over the BMW driver.
He is followed by Maro Engel (Mercedes-AMG Team Winward) and Ayhancan Güven, who are 16 and 17 points behind overall leader Auer respectively. The Turkish driver from Team Manthey EMA already has four wins this season in his Porsche 911 GT3-R – more than any other driver in the field. However, his tally at the Red Bull Ring was meagre, totalling nine points. Jack Aitken was hit even harder. Having travelled to Styria in second place in the standings and having been as fast as an arrow throughout the weekend, the Briton in the Ferrari 296 GT3 missed out on both races and dropped back to sixth place overall. The Emil Frey Racing driver, who is level on points with Marco Wittmann in the second Schubert BMW, is 21 points behind Auer but still has every chance of winning the title. The same applies to 2023 DTM champion Thomas Preining in the second Manthey Porsche and Engel’s Winward team-mate Jules Gounon, who are 25 and 29 points behind respectively.
And this does not include those DTM drivers who are no longer involved in the title fight but are always good for top positions – such as Arjun Maini and Fabio Scherer in the powerful Ford Mustang GT3 of the Haupt Racing Team, Gilles Magnus and Nicolas Baert in the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Comtoyou Racing and McLaren aces Ben Dörr and Timo Glock, who put in a strong performance at the Red Bull Ring. Or, of course, Swiss driver Ricardo Feller, who made a big impression in the only Audi R8 LMS EVO in the field in Spielberg and sensationally won Sunday’s race. The Land Motorsport driver was the seventh different winner in 14 races!
To cut a long story short: No crystal ball in the world would be suitable for making reliable predictions about the outcome of the season finale at the Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg.
Plenty of excitement in the support races too
The title in all support series will also be decided at the season finale on the 4.5-kilometre Grand Prix circuit just outside Heidelberg. In the ADAC GT Masters, there are many indications that a Ford Mustang GT3 will win the title for the first time. HRT drivers Salman Owega and Finn Wiebelhaus are travelling to the asparagus metropolis with a whopping 40-point lead over Leyton Fourie and Tim Zimmermann in the BMW M4 GT4 from FK Performance Motorsport. However, 56 points are still up for grabs in the finale of the ‘second Bundesliga of German GT3 motorsport’.
Enrico Förderer and Jay Mo Härtling, who hold the interim lead in the ADAC GT4 Germany in the Mercedes-AMG GT4 fielded by SR Motorsport by Schnitzelalm, have a slightly slimmer lead. The Italian-Turkish BMW crew of Gabriele Piana/Berkay Besler (FK Performance Motorsport) are 20 points behind the Germans and within striking distance. And watch out – even here, supposed outsiders can play a decisive role in the title fight. As the Porsche Cayman GT4 duo Kristensen/Robinson proved with their debut victory in Sunday’s race at Spielberg.
The title duel in the Porsche Sixt Carrera Cup Germany is still very much up for grabs. Frenchman Alessandro Ghiretti (Schumacher CLRT) and Dutchman Robert de Haan (Proton Huber Competition) are separated by just 12 points ahead of the finale. The duel between these two rivals had already thrilled in the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup 2025 – with the better outcome for Ghiretti. However, the Porsche Junior lost a large part of his lead in the German offshoot of the world’s fastest one-make cup with an unusually mediocre performance and 13th place in Sunday’s race at Spielberg, after de Haan had romped from ninth to second place in the same race. Regardless of the outcome of the title fight, every race fan gets goosebumps when around 30 of the 510-hp Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars roar through the Motodrom.
Two races of the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine round off the exciting supporting programme, which also continues off the racetrack.
Great supporting programme with lots of entertainment
The grand season finale of the DTM 2025 at the Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg on the first weekend in October not only promises thrilling motorsport, but also guarantees a rousing music spectacle. On Saturday evening (4 October) from 7 pm, shooting star Kamrad and the legendary H-Blockx will perform on the ‘DTM Powerstage presented by Pirelli’ behind the south grandstand (Block A area). Access to the ‘DTM Powerstage presented by Pirelli’ is free of charge for all DTM ticket holders.
The DTM Fan Zone also attracts visitors with a wide range of entertainment, interviews, shows, music, autograph sessions with the racing drivers and much more. The top attraction for the little ones has always been the ball pool. And, as always, all this is available for a small budget. Tickets are available from €49 via the official website www.dtm.com. Children up to the age of 15 are admitted free of charge.
