The DTM season review

The 2011 season marked the end of an era in DTM competition, in more ways than one.

Even before the season began, it was known that this would be the last year for the current breed of cars before sweeping rule changes come into effect for 2012; and it was evident, too, that BMW would enter the series 12 months later, making it the last of six campaigns in which the championship would be fought out between Mercedes and Audi.

With Paul di Resta taking his considerable talent off to the world of Formula 1, a new champion was destined to be crowned; but while most - including AUTOSPORT - expected former title-winners Gary Paffett, Mattias Ekstrom and Timo Scheider to be the main protagonists, few would have given Martin Tomczyk even a remote chance.

In a decade with the Abt Sportsline team, Tomczyk had managed just four wins, and had fought for the championship on only one occasion, in 2007.

To make things more difficult for him, the 29-year-old German had been demoted from Audi's A-team to an old-spec A4 run by a Phoenix Racing squad that had not won since its days as an Opel works team in 2001!

But incredibly, the cards fell in favour of Tomczyk, the combination of a 25kg weight advantage over the newer, 2009-spec Audis and Mercedes, the benefit of a team built entirely around his demands and the level playing field afforded by the series switch from Dunlop to Hankook tyres during the winter (a move that rendered the years of data gathered by the top teams redundant).

So despite falling eight points behind HWA Mercedes driver Bruno Spengler after just two races, Tomczyk's record of scoring points in every race - something nobody else managed - plus three wins, proved enough to give him a maiden DTM title; the first for anything other than a current-spec car.

In a season that delivered plenty of tension, but few genuinely exciting races, it was the one storyline that provided cause for cheer.

The top 10 DTM drivers in focus

1. Martin Tomczyk (Phoenix Audi)
Points: 72
Wins: 3
Other podiums: 5
Poles: 1
Fastest laps: 1

The man everybody had written off came good in 2011, and how! Three wins and points in every race meant that come the end of the season there was nobody as deserving of the title as Tomczyk.

Cast out by Abt Sportsline, he thrived in the cosy environment afforded by Ernst Moser's Phoenix Racing squad, and with rookie Rahel Frey brought in as his team-mate, the German got the team working around him in a similar way to that which brought Michael Schumacher such success with Benetton and Ferrari in F1.

Making pitstop efficiency a priority (his crew topped the season's league table), Tomczyk regularly gained a second per race while at a standstill. Such precision led to a crucial win at Lausitz, where he overtook Spengler in the pits at the first stops and sped away to victory.

This was crucial as it earned him the nomination of championship driver within Audi and gained him the assistance of the other drivers - something his main rival, Spengler, lacked at Mercedes.

Tomczyk was only the year's fourth best qualifier and failed to make it past Q2 on three occasions, but was always on form on race day, starting well and managing to find grip on cold tyres on the first lap that many others failed to achieve.

He was also comfortably the best of the year-old brigade, only being beaten by an older-spec car once (Filipe Albuquerque at Valencia), proving that while he probably had just about the best overall package, he did the absolute best job possible with it.

And then he surprised us all by signing for BMW...

2. Mattias Ekstrom (Abt Audi)
Points: 52
Wins: 3
Other podiums: 2
Poles: 2
Fastest laps: 1

Had one or two nondescript performances early in the season resulted in even minor points, then the Swede could now be celebrating a third DTM title - but they didn't and he isn't.

After rescuing second at the Hockenheim season opener, despite his rear suspension collapsing with half a lap remaining, twice he was hit by problems, splitter damage blighting Zandvoort and the Swede then turning eco-warrior at Spielberg! Having crashed in the pitlane during wet qualifying, he started well down and trudged off into the garage after a right-front wheel fell off. "No point burning fuel when I'm so far behind. Why not save the Earth?" he said.

The 'Eki' that has won the DTM twice before returned at the Nurburgring, utterly dominating, and setting up a run of three wins and a second place, dropping only two points in the process.

His wet Oscherlsben victory came by 42 seconds - the biggest winning margin for 26 years! Should he continue in a similar vein next year, he'll be a hot title favourite.

3. Bruno Spengler (HWA Mercedes)
Points: 51
Wins: 2
Other podiums: 3
Poles: 4
Fastest laps: 2

You'd never have guessed after two races of the 2011 season - when Spengler was eight points clear of his nearest rivals - that anybody else's name would be on the champion's trophy.

You could have said that a year ago as well, when the Canadian threw away a 17-point advantage with a handful of races to go and came away empty handed. Yet, unbelievably, lightning struck twice.

Four poles and two wins from the first five races pointed towards championship form for the HWA Mercedes driver, who was easily the best qualifier of all during the season.

But things took a turn after a second place at the Nurburgring in August, as news of his switch to BMW for 2012 became fact rather than just rumour.

Despite presenting a strong facade, this can't have done anything but destabilise his position within the organisation, and after a front-right damper gave way during a wet Oschersleben race - denying him eight easy points - his performances dropped off a cliff face.

Twelfth and sixth places on the grid for the final two races produced just two points, meaning that once Tomczyk had become champion at Valencia, Spengler couldn't even prevent Ekstrom from overhauling him for second.

4. Timo Scheider (Abt Audi)
Points: 36
Wins: 0
Podiums: 1
Poles: 0
Fastest laps: 2

The two-time champion endured his first winless season in the DTM since 2007, and yet somehow still managed to end up fourth in the championship through consistent points accumulation.

Key to his inability to unlock that final bit of pace in qualifying was the greater oversteer developed by the Audi following the series' switch from Dunlop to Hankook tyres.

The highlight was undoubtedly his second place at Lausitz, achieved once Audi worked out that tyre degradation levels were minimal and put him on an ultra-long first stint, allowing him to climb from ninth on the grid to second in the race.

But that was to be his only podium finish of the year, early-race spins at Brands Hatch and Oschersleben costing him a hatful of points.

How he would have loved a 2008 A4 - the car in which he won his maiden title - this year!

5. Jamie Green (HWA Mercedes)
Points: 35
Wins: 1
Other podiums: 1
Poles: 0
Fastest laps: 2

After winning races in old-spec machinery for the previous two years, Green - a former McLaren AUTOSPORT BRDC Award winner - was deservedly promoted back to the HWA Mercedes squad, taking the seat vacated by F1-bound di Resta.

But he didn't put together the kind of championship challenge many expected of him.

Most of that was due to a string of poor starts ruining consistently excellent qualifying performances (he made it into the all-important Q4 session six times and onto the front row on four occasions), and the rest was down to Mercedes' small but decisive pace disadvantage to the Audis on Hankook tyres.

There were a couple of disappointing moments, most notably at Lausitz when Tomczyk caught him napping into Turn 1 on the second lap, but over the course of the season the Brit was consistently the second best Mercedes driver behind Spengler.

The major exception was the Hockenheim finale, when after going fastest in qualifying (the Q4 time that eventually gave Miguel Molina pole was slower than Green's Q3 mark), he left the rest of the field in a different postcode to record a dominant victory and head into the winter on a high.

Although not yet confirmed as an HWA driver for 2012, Norbert Haug and co would be mad to let him go.

6. Mike Rockenfeller (Abt Audi)
Points: 31
Wins: 1
Other podiums: 1
Poles: 1
Fastest laps: 1

It was a real shame for 'Rocky' that he suffered his huge Le Mans 24 Hours shunt, because it might well have put the mockers on what could - just could - have been a sensational season for the German in his first year in a current-spec car.

An encouraging qualifying position at Hockenheim went to waste as a splitter problem caused him to label his A4 the worst car he'd ever driven on race day.

He scored his first win a fortnight later, ace Audi pitwork getting him out ahead of early leader Spengler, but then - after Spielberg - came the crash.

Off the pace at the Norisring all weekend (although, despite qualifying on the back row, he swears he was suffering no ill-effects by this point), he had at least rediscovered his form at the Nurburgring, where he ran in the top three all race long and only threw away second to Spengler by locking up under braking for Turn 1 on the penultimate lap.

He even added his maiden series pole at Brands Hatch, but spun away his advantage on a wet track.

If he can maintain his achievement of being Audi's top qualifier into 2012, then he could well front the manufacturer's title challenge.

7. Gary Paffett (HWA Mercedes)
Points: 25
Wins: 0
Podiums: 0
Poles: 0
Fastest laps: 0

Gary Paffett's Hockenheim weekend in April pretty much summed up his year: he stuffed his Mercedes backwards into the tyres at the Sachs Kurve early in qualifying, putting him at the back of the grid, then drove like a hero 24 hours later to rescue sixth place.

Unlike his team-mate Green, Paffett couldn't even get close to Spengler's pace in qualifying and made the all-important Q4 session only twice all year.

On both occasions - Norisring and Brands Hatch - he started second, but his chances in the wet races were scuppered by an odd crash in the former race (later traced to a faulty steering rack), and Mercedes' wrong call on race set-up at the latter, HWA in particular believing that heavy rain pre-race did not necessitate a switch to a full wet set-up. (Audi did, and took four of the top six spots, Paffett the best Mercedes driver in fourth).

"We just didn't have the pace today," was a regular soundbite, although it wasn't usually clear why.

8. Ralf Schumacher (HWA Mercedes)
Points: 21
Wins: 0
Podiums: 2
Poles: 2
Fastest laps: 0

"What's Ralf doing in P1?" asked a fellow journalist at the Hockenheim season-opener after the younger Schumacher had led his first practice session for a long time.

The answer was that he was reveling in the extra sensitivity of the new Hankook tyres, following a couple of years on Dunlops.

After taking his first DTM podium in the race, his boss, Norbert Haug, said that this new-found form could result in a title challenge. Even Schumacher seemed convinced, adding a second place at Spielberg, the German apologising to Haug for "driving like an idiot since 2008".

Unfortunately for him, he failed to build on his two rostrum finishes in three races and promptly qualified 17th for the next round at Lausitz.

After that, the Schumacher of old appeared to have returned as he spent the rest of the year mired in the midfield and getting involved in scrapes with, notably, David Coulthard at the Nurburgring and Filipe Albuquerque at Oschersleben.

That race was also the event in which he slid off the track while running a strong third and then rejoined the circuit without looking. That he avoided taking Green out was a miracle, but he hit Oliver Jarvis and earned a grid penalty for the next race.

Progress has certainly been made, however, and after his strongest DTM campaign yet, Ralf will be back on the grid next year.

9. Edoardo Mortara (Rosberg Audi)
Points: 21
Wins: 0
Podiums: 2
Poles: 0
Fastest laps: 0

The Italian proved he's an undoubted DTM star of the future as he consistently - but not comfortably - outperformed his fellow first-year drivers to emerge as the championship's top rookie.

On the face of it, that shouldn't have been hard as he had a year-old Audi - the car to have in 2011 - at his disposal. But with another series novice - Filipe Albuquerque - as his Team Rosberg team-mate, he had to dig deep to establish himself as the squad's number-one driver.

He was on the pace in qualifying from the word go, and could have been sixth at Hockenheim had he not been caught out behind the safety car between mandatory pitstops.

He was sixth two weeks later at Zandvoort and excelled whenever wet weather was in town.

Top dog in the rain at Spielberg, he only missed out on pole when the spitting became a storm just as he headed out for his Q4 lap (and then lasted about 200m of a dry race when he and Maro Engel collided).

Two impressive wet podiums came at Brands Hatch and Oschersleben, but crucial qualifying spins at each of the last three races cost him dearly.

He knows he has to eliminate those mistakes in 2012, but it was an impressive year for the former F3 Euro Series champion nonetheless.

10. Oliver Jarvis (Abt Audi)
Points: 21
Wins: 0
Podiums: 1
Poles: 0
Fastest laps: 0

It was a difficult year for the former McLaren AUTOSPORT BRDC Award winner (yes, they do have a tendency to find their way into the DTM, don't they?), who had a new engineer in fellow Briton Dave Benbow and a second bite of the cherry to score his first Abt podium, after the near-miss of Valencia 2010.

After struggling through the first couple of rounds, he appeared to have turned a corner at Spielberg, where he qualified a season-high second in wet conditions and then turned it into a dry third place 24 hours later.

A competitive run at Lausitz a fortnight later appeared to be yet more evidence of this, but despite regularly starting inside the top 10 as the season wore on, a three-race run from the Norisring to Brands Hatch (each weekend heavily rain-affected) proved fruitless and left him a handful of points shy of where he could have been.

Any other business...

Following Rockenfeller's massive Le Mans shunt, there was a welcome return for former Audi regular Tom Kristensen at Lausitz as the Dane substituted for the Abt man, head of Audi Sport Dr Wolfgang Ullrich deciding that his regular driver needed to skip both this race and the Nurburgring 24 Hours to make sure he was in the best physical shape for the rest of the season.

Ekstrom beat Spengler in the points, but didn't manage it at Hockenheim in April

Kristensen, a winner of four DTM races, put up a good fight by topping the opening practice session and then finishing a creditable seventh - making no effort to keep the likes of Scheider and Jarvis behind him in the race either. Now there's a true Audi man.

Hankook made its debut as the championship's tyre manufacturer, replacing long-time supplier Dunlop.

The Korean manufacturer, seen much more often supplying Formula 3 teams, did a sterling job in its maiden DTM season, with zero punctures and minimal degradation even over a 30-lap race stint, as experienced - or not - by Spengler in Austria.

All-round praise was given following the Hockenheim series opener, with many drivers - Ralf Schumacher especially - commenting on the greater feel available compared the 'rock-hard' Dunlops.

Next year, under new rules, Hankook will produce wider tyres to be fitted to larger wheels.

DTM came to the people in 2011 with a special non-points 'Show Event' held in Munich's Olympic Stadium during the summer.

Mortara triumphed in Munich © LAT

The two-day meeting featured an intra-marque battle to find an Audi and a Mercedes 'champion', with each squaring up in the final to find an overall winner.

The next day was a free-for-all, with a random draw determining the pairings in knockout style until only the top two remained to battle for the prize.

Mortara won on the opening day from Spengler before a crash on day two - into one of numerous barriers stupidly placed too close to the track - handed victory to his rival.

Quite what the point - and the marketing benefit - of the exercise was is anyone's guess. When 120,000 people show up to Hockenheim for the season finale, what need is there to waste time, effort and money catering to the needs of less than half of them in a football stadium? The Race of Champions (also held in Germany this time) comes round once a year anyway!

Finally, the fact that the championship is still around at all is testament to the co-operation between Hans-Werner Aufrecht, head of series organiser the ITR, and the manufacturers themselves.

With Opel having pulled out at the end of 2005, and no replacement in sight, there appeared to be little hope of keeping the DTM going long-term.

Audi, BMW and Mercedes unveiled their 2012 offerings at the Hockenheim finale

But the hard work of Haug, Ullrich and the other key players at Audi and Mercedes allowed the championship to thrive, despite the involvement of only two manufacturers.

When spiraling costs became a factor, in came a development freeze; when markets dictated that the series would be well advised to race in China or Italy, it did so; and when keeping driver line-ups balanced became essential to the marketable brand of the series, so both agreed not to poach each others' top men and women.

The result is a series that BMW could not resist, the manufacturer even quitting its involvement in the World Touring Car Championship (a series with potentially a much wider reach in terms of new-car sales) in order to re-enter the DTM under its new rules next year.

With Tomczyk and Spengler, plus three-time WTCC title-winner Andy Priaulx and Augusto Farfus on-board, and two more top names sure to follow, the competition is just going to get hotter.