DTM drivers back two-day schedule after trying Brands Hatch format
Leading DTM drivers have backed the two-day format the series adopted at Brands Hatch last weekend

DTM returned to Britain after a five year absence last weekend and raced on Brands' Grand Prix circuit for the first time.
Running on the GP loop is limited to just 24 days a year for testing and racing, which meant the DTM schedule - which usually starts with a half-hour first practice session on Friday - was crammed into two days, leaving teams far less time to hone set-ups than usual.
"The difficulty is the timing, because you don't have a lot of time between practice and qualifying - only 80 minutes," Audi's reigning champion Rene Rast told Autosport.
"To nail the set-up, let's say in two or three hours, is very difficult, especially when you don't have a lot of driving time. It's more like a guessing game.
"I liked the format to be honest. It compresses everything, it makes life a bit more difficult, but it's very nice."
Rast's fellow Audi driver Loic Duval added: "I'm a big fan of it.
"I'm more used to it with some of the others series I've been racing in like Formula E where everything happens on the same day.
"It's pretty cool to try and put everything together in a really short time."
The timetable benefitted those with recent experience on the GP loop at first, including Mercedes' Daniel Juncadella - who claimed his second DTM pole on Saturday and went on to win his first race at the 67th attempt.
"That is great, it was a little help for me," he said of the truncated schedule.
"When you drive on Friday you can go to sleep, analyse everything better and find again little things.
"Today [Saturday] was all in a row so it was like Formula E style. That was cool."

Race two winner Paul di Resta said Mercedes had been a "big supporter of just having two-day events", while team boss Ulrich Fritz believed the fact Mercedes' cars are all run centrally by HWA helped it overcome the difficulties presented by the format.
Jamie Green suggested the format was the "worst-case scenario" for him, having not driven on the layout since 2003, but believed it had merits.
"The sessions are shorter by five minutes and there's less time in between to look at data and figure out what you need to change," he said.
"I wouldn't be against two-day events, it's just that this is a track I don't know. There's less track time than a normal weekend so it makes it a bit more difficult."
Gerhard Berger, chairman of DTM's parent ITR group, said the weekend proved two-day events were "doable" but suggested similar formats would not be implemented at other events.
"I think it was quite fitting for us to give it a try," said Berger.
"Normally we would most probably stay with our format but it was good to try it this way. Is it doable? Yes."

Previous article
Mercedes DTM drivers under 'clear team rules' ahead of final races
Next article
Brands Hatch unknowns did the DTM a favour

About this article
Series | DTM |
Author | Jack Cozens |
DTM drivers back two-day schedule after trying Brands Hatch format
Trending
The slow-burner threatening to unseat Audi's DTM king
It's taken him a while to emerge as a consistent title challenger, but in the final year of DTM's Class One rule set, Nico Muller has smoothed the rough edges and has double champion stablemate Rene Rast working harder than ever to keep up in the title race
How a DTM failure became an unlikely Nurburgring conqueror
Opel's fortunes in the DTM had taken a turn for the worst by 2003 - hardly the pedigree that suggested it could take on the toughest 24-hour race of them all. But that's exactly what it did
The season that revitalised a sleeping giant
On the 20th anniversary of the resumption of hostilities in the DTM, Autosport revisits a classic season that brought a staple of German motorsport back to life with a bang and set in motion the careers of some notable names
Does 2000 hold the answers to DTM's current crisis?
It's 20 years since the DTM roared back into life at a packed Hockenheim with a back-to-basics approach as the antidote to its high-tech past. Now it's on its knees again, so is it time to recall the lessons learned in 2000?
The last-chance saloon of Germany's forgotten tin-top champions
The Opel Vectra GTS was the last in the line of the marque's DTM challengers, but failed to hit the lofty heights of its predecessors when financial constraints hit
Ranking the 10 best Audi DTM drivers
Audi last week announced it would be exiting the DTM at the end of 2020, bringing the curtain down on 20 years of continuous participation since the series' reboot in 2000. Autosport's expert panel ranks its 10 best drivers from the period
How the DTM landed itself in crisis
Audi's announcement that it will withdraw from the DTM was the latest bodyblow for a series that has lost three manufacturers in as many years. Some major soul-searching will now be required to assess how it can survive
The FE cynic who had to accept change in his series
DTM boss Gerhard Berger was an ardent detractor of Formula E and was reluctant for his series to embrace greener engine technologies. But this cynic's tune has had to change to ensure the DTM's existence in the future of motorsport