[DTM] 2010 Season Final Shanghai

[Andy77]

So after the crash festival called qualifying that even topped the Macau crash festival last weekend I start to ask me if racing pilotes grew to be rather talentless these days. I mean look around.

"On most circuits these days they have so much asphalted run off, far and wide, that they are more likely to run out fuel than hitting a wall at all"

- the top quote of the season (I forgot who said that originally but i`ll add it here if i get reminded).
I think that the current crop of race drivers is not really used to short to no run off at all , so that they get fewer and fewer experience on close & tight circuits which results in the crash festivals at Macao and today at Shanghai. What makes it worse is that the final qualifying Q4 was cancelled after Jamie Green hit the wall in T1 on his flying lap. I think that this was due to its main promoter Germanies DTM broadcasting channel ARD who reminded race control and organizers to quit now coz coverage went overtime as well.

However, here is the qualifying result taken from www.dtm.com

28.11.2010: Shanghai
Results: Qualifying
Pos. Driver / Entrant Laps Time Gap
1. gb Paul Di Resta
AMG Mercedes
AMG Mercedes C-Klasse 7 58.937
2. gb Gary Paffett
Salzgitter AMG Mercedes
Salzgitter AMG Mercedes C-Klasse 6 59.045 00.108
3. gb Jamie Green
Junge Sterne AMG Mercedes
Junge Sterne AMG Mercedes C-Klasse 10 59.218 00.281
4. de Timo Scheider
Audi Sport Team Abt
GW : plus/Top Service Audi A4 DTM 8 59.277 00.340
5. de Markus Winkelhock
Audi Sport Team Rosberg
Playboy Audi A4 DTM 9 59.301 00.364
6. gb David Coulthard
Deutsche Post AMG Mercedes
Deutsche Post AMG Mercedes C-Klasse 10 59.322 00.385
7. es Miguel Molina
Audi Sport Rookie Team Abt
Audi Bank A4 DTM 9 59.431 00.494
8. de Martin Tomczyk
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline
Red Bull Cola Audi A4 DTM 10 59.483 00.546
9. swe Mattias Ekström
Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline
Red Bull Audi A4 DTM 8 59.522 00.585
10. gb Oliver Jarvis
Audi Sport Team Abt
Tabac Original Audi A4 DTM 9 59.573 00.636
11. de Ralf Schumacher
Laureus AMG Mercedes
Laureus AMG Mercedes C-Klasse 8 59.678 00.741
12. gb Susie Stoddart
TV Spielfilm AMG Mercedes
TV Spielfilm AMG Mercedes C-Klasse 3 59.750 00.813
13. de Mike Rockenfeller
Audi Sport Team Phoenix
S line Audi A4 DTM 9 59.763 00.826
14. gb Katherine Legge
Audi Sport Team Rosberg
Glamour Audi A4 DTM 10 1:00.084 01.147
15. de Maro Engel
GQ AMG Mercedes
GQ AMG Mercedes C-Klasse 9 1:00.114 01.177
16. cn CongFu Cheng
stern AMG Mercedes
stern AMG Mercedes C-Klasse 9 1:00.381 01.444
17. ca Bruno Spengler
Mercedes-Benz Bank AMG
Mercedes-Benz Bank AMG C-Klasse 3 1:01.010 02.073

[rallycrosscraig]

4 Brits in The top 6!
5 in the top ten!

[helgi]

Well, Macao is well known, and that new Schanghai lay-out is all new and very dirty - all drivers lost their rear axles. And speeds are higher in DTM. I wouldn't say that Spengler is talentless.

[Bonanza]

http://dtm.livetiming.de/ticker.htm

Seems we have a new champion...and he's a certain man named Paul Di Resta

[Andy77]

Congrats to Paul, a well deserved title.

I am sorry but I think DTM should tour the biggest parking lots in Europe , paint some white stripes on the ground there and then go racing there.
So now DTM officials saw a high risk in a standing start procedure and demanded not just a rolling but a safety car start. And to make it completely easy they forbid overtaking in the first three turns after start too. A dull race from there on only pepped up by Tomczyk who overtook Green after pitstop and Green who lost another flap of his car that should end Oliver Jarvis' race a small bit later when he hit the flap got a flat spotted tire and ruined his suspension from it.
The next interesting bit actually ended the race. After the race was turned into a timed race, because the race was started 10 mins delayed , due to spectators in non spectators areas the race ended under red flag with 5 min to go because Mike Rockenfeller lost his Audi in the attempt of overtaking Suzy Stoddart. Both touched and blocked the free pass of the corner. After the chaos during Qualifying the officials seemingly became ultra nervous and threw out red flag which eventually ended the race with Paffet ahead of di Resta and Scheider.

One can only hope that a 3rd and hopefully a forth manufacturer can end this farce called DTM.

[Speed-King]

So now DTM officials saw a high risk in a standing start procedure and demanded not just a rolling but a safety car start. And to make it completely easy they forbid overtaking in the first three turns after start too

It would have been so easy to get around that problem... simply put the starting line after those three turns. It's not the first time something like this would happen, at Mid Ohio they start most major races on the backstretch.

[Try Hard]

Originally Posted by Andy77

The next interesting bit actually ended the race. After the race was turned into a timed race, because the race was started 10 mins delayed , due to spectators in non spectators areas

I was spectating in that area... it was pretty much the only area of any run-off (and big enough for Jamie Green to do some donughts after the race ), and to be honest, it was **** poor from the organisers, not to put catch fencing up there, as quite simply it was pretty obvious that if there was an accident or crash, then the cars would naturally travel that way!

They eventually solved it by putting up advertising hordings to block the view, and opening up another area in a much safer place to let people watch from.

From a personal point of view... it was good to get so close to the cars, however I am left dissapointed;

a) Only attended on sunday, but still had to pay full weekend standing ticket price. I mean seriously, if you want to draw people in, not that hard to have a day only ticket, especially given the rigorous checking of tickets by officals.
And because of this, the grandstand VIP passes were a faintly ridiculous 1800RMB (£180) even if you only wanted to go on sunday!

b) No PA at all in the standing areas... I mean it may have been in german or chinese, but at least there would have been some commentry for the locals to figure out what was going on.

c) Zero local promotion... I got off the subway under the Pearl Tower in the financial district, and you wouldn't have been able to know there was any form of race going such the lack of promotion... First spotted ads for it about, ooo, 10seconds away from the track. Seriously, is it that hard to promote a local race?

There can't have been more than 1000 people in the standing area I was in, no doubt the pricing kept a large number of casual race fans / potential customers for the marques (Audi is big here in china) away, which is massively foolish, for what amounts to a german car manufacturer ****ing contest...

Left with a particular sour taste, with seemingly the DTM wanting to in effect ship a crowd in, rather than attempt to get a following with locals. Only just compensated for by standing less the 10m away from the track...

Ed

[Try Hard]

To follow the above... I guess my point is, with manufactures saying "we need exposure in china", you could have fooled me with the display this weekend... and then crying about it being too expensive to race in the DTM, you just shipped your cars and series 5000miles around the world, for what exactly? To broadcast a race at the wrong time of day for your european audience, and please a few hundred VIPs? hmmm, do the maths...

[marcosgt]

A new low in the dismal display that the DTM has become...

I've seen more excitement on a Monday morning on the M3...

Perhaps BMW's arrival will spice things up a little, but for me the DTM needs to be less a marketing event for the German marques and more a race series...

M.

[Andy77]

Originally Posted by marcosgt

A new low in the dismal display that the DTM has become...

I've seen more excitement on a Monday morning on the M3...

Perhaps BMW's arrival will spice things up a little, but for me the DTM needs to be less a marketing event for the German marques and more a race series...

M.

I feel very similar indeed. When the biggest excitement in a race comes from some broken flaps that destroy another drivers race, something is wrong indeed