Last chance for Rocky's rivals

WHAT ANTI-CLIMAX?

The closeness of the competition in the 2013-spec DTM meant that few people - even those closely involved with the series - would have predicted the scenario of Mike Rockenfeller wrapping up the championship with a round to spare.

But it happened.

While the events of Zandvoort could be viewed as making this weekend's season finale at Hockenheim a bit of an anti-climax, there is still plenty to play for; not least the manufacturers' and teams' championships; the two awards Audi, BMW and Mercedes are most concerned with.

The manufacturers' race is on a knife-edge, with Audi just eight points ahead of BMW with 78 still up for grabs this weekend. BMW has actually taken the highest manufacturer score at any single race, its 70 points at Spielberg trumping Audi's 65 from Moscow and Oschersleben.

Mercedes is out of the running for the title, and achieved its season-high of 61 points at Lausitz when Gary Paffett won. Its single-digit returns in the past two races have put it on the back foot.

The teams' race is equally tense, with the Phoenix Audi squad of Rockenfeller and Miguel Molina just three points clear of the RBM BMW team of Augusto Farfus and Joey Hand.

Rockenfeller celebrated the title at Zandvoort © XPB

RBM's score of 31 from the Hockenheim season-opener compares favourably with the four points netted by Phoenix at the same race, and Bart Mampaey's outfit has outscored Ernst Moser's men in each of the past three races.

One driver's partner remarked at Zandvoort: "apart from Rocky, who has actually had a good season? Everyone's had problems and it just seems too random as to why some guys are fast one weekend and nowhere the next."

With 43 points still on offer, the HWA Mercedes pairing of Christian Vietoris and Robert Wickens are in with a shout too, 10 behind Phoenix. Neither, however, has scored a point since Wickens' victory at the Nurburgring in August.

SOMETHING TO PROVE

Away from the title fights, which feel like they carry as much prestige as a grand-slam doubles final, there are plenty of intriguing sub-plots to the Hockenheim weekend.

Among them is the quest for several drivers to end the season on a high after frustrating campaigns.

So who is most in need of a good result to finish off the season and head into the winter full of optimism for the 2014 campaign?

Here are AUTOSPORT'S top picks...

BRUNO SPENGLER

What a difference a year makes. Twelve months ago the Canadian arrived at Hockenheim second in the points and left it as champion, having won the race to overhaul a tiny points deficit to season-long leader Gary Paffett.

The 2013 season - or the second half of it, at least - has been very different. Even up to the midway point of the year, the Schnitzer BMW driver was Rockenfeller's main threat in the championship, thanks to an ultra-consistent start to the campaign, highlighted by a dominant victory at Spielberg.

Spengler has been unable to emulate 2012 © XPB

But his title aspirations were derailed when he was spun early in the Moscow race by Miguel Molina, and then punted off by another Audi driver - Filipe Albuquerque - next time out at a wet Nurburgring.

Any last throw of the dice at Oschersleben was then affected when Spengler was stripped of his pole position for having used the wrong tyres during qualifying and relegated to sixth on the grid.

First-lap damage and appalling race pace from both Schnitzer cars left him way down the order.

The pace of the BMW in clear air recently ≠ largely down to the efforts of Farfus and RBM - should give Spengler the confidence to be right at the sharp end again.

EDOARDO MORTARA

Just as Spengler was BMW's star performer last year, the same claim could be made of Mortara in Audi colours. The only man to win a race for the four rings in 2012 (he did it twice), he was its benchmark, even if he ultimately finished one place behind Rockenfeller in fifth in the points.

Of the Audi clan, only champion Rockenfeller has a better qualifying average this year, giving the clearest indication possible that Mortara's 20th place in the championship - with only two points finishes - is anything but representative.

Spielberg - the scene of his maiden DTM win last year - would have provided an easy podium. However, second place was lost to a wheel-banging incident with Marco Wittmann's BMW at Turn 2, which damaged the Rosberg Audi and left it 15th at the flag.

Mortara has missed several chances to score this year © XPB

He led at the Norisring and would likely have finished third had he and Gary Paffett given each other more room on any one of three close occasions during the final stages of the race.

Add to that the Italian being turned around at the second corner at the Nurburgring (he finished 12th) and stalling at the start at Oschersleben, and a realistic assessment is of around 40 points lost.

Add those in and he would easily be in the top 10 of the championship.

ROBERTO MERHI

If there's one thing the Spanish sophomore has in bucketloads, it's commitment. But commitment does not always equal speed.

Frustratingly for Merhi, he has been unable to unlock the necessary speed from his HWA Mercedes on Saturdays.

His average grid position of 20.0 is the worst of anybody in the championship - not helped by the C-coupe being seemingly unable to extract performance from its standard Hankooks in qualifying trim.

Mehri is still trying to unlock his car's speed © XPB

The flip side of this conundrum is that the car is the best in the field on standard-tyred long runs, and Merhi's stint times on the standards are often among the best in the field.

When you start from the back row, however, much of this is irrelevant.

The Hockenheim season opener featured most drivers completing two-thirds of the distance on the softer 'option' tyres, meaning the Mercedes is unlikely to be a more potent prospect this weekend.

If adverse conditions come into play (as they did at the opener), he could be in for a strong weekend.

AUTOSPORT will broadcast live video from the final round of the 2013 DTM at Hockenheim this weekend. Qualifying from 1.30pm BST on Saturday and the race from 1pm BST on Sunday.