Rockenfeller's road to DTM kingship

Mike Rockenfeller arrives at Zandvoort this weekend knowing that a second-place finish will make him DTM champion for the first time.

Only Augusto Farfus can deny the 29-year-old Phoenix Audi driver a crown he has long desired; one that will appease Audi's dismal memories of a 2012 season - the first of the series' new era - in which only one of its drivers won a race.

Very few would argue that Rockenfeller doesn't deserve this year's title, which would be the second in three seasons for Ernst Moser's Phoenix squad. He has simply been without parallel for consistency.

Rockenfeller also has a terrific record amid the Dutch dunes over the past two seasons, taking his maiden DTM race win at Zandvoort in 2011 and adding a runner-up spot last year.

Rockenfeller's trophy cabinet barely needs any additions. Its highlights including silverware for 24-hour victories at Le Mans and the Nurburgring and for title wins in the European Le Mans Series in 2008, the GT2 class of the FIA GT Championship in '05 and the previous season's Porsche Carrera Cup Germany.

But so far the DTM has been one prize that has eluded him, ever since he opted for a transfer from sister brand Porsche over to Audi in time for the 2007 season.

Rockenfeller becomes an FIA GT2 champion in 2005 alongside Marc Lieb © LAT

With his background in long-distance GT racing for Porsche, Rockenfeller was a shoo-in for Audi's LMP programme, centred on Le Mans, but adapted quickly to the demands of the DTM and took a podium finish in only his second start in the series.

The realities of racing old-spec machinery in such a closely fought series soon hit home and it would be another three years before he again mounted the rostrum.

Come 2011, his performances had earned him a place in Audi's crack Abt Sportsline squad. That season would also be pivotal in his career.

"That year changed a lot of things for me," says Rockenfeller. "I had my first year in Audi's top team in the DTM, got my first race win and qualified well almost everywhere.

"It proved I could be at the front and it made me decide to focus just on DTM and not worry about the LMPs so much.

"I saw guys like Frank Biela and Tom Kristensen winning in LMPs with Audi in their forties. There's nobody in the DTM winning in their forties. I'm only 29 now, so I thought I could put all my energy into this now, try to win it, and then come back to LMPs later on. I have to thank Audi a lot for letting me do that."

His gamble appears to have paid off handsomely. A move to the Phoenix squad - to replace BMW-bound champion Martin Tomczyk - for 2012 reinvigorated 'Rocky' after a tough '11, dominated by the huge accident at Le Mans in an R18 TDI that put him on the sidelines for six weeks.

Rockenfeller asked for his emphasis to be shifted away from Le Mans and LMP1 © LAT

He ended the '12 season as Audi's highest-placed driver in the championship - fourth - thanks to incredible consistency and the fifth-best qualifying average (and second best of the Audi drivers) all year.

With continuity behind him, Rockenfeller has gone from strength to strength this year, and key to his success has been the Phoenix team's ability to make effective snap-decisions on strategy.

Nowhere was this better illustrated than at the Nurburgring in August where Rockenfeller, from last following an off at the first corner, assumed the lead early on after being the first man to stop for wet rubber as rain began to fall.

The fact that this stop came before the mandatory pit window opened - the rest of the field waited a further two laps to come in - meant that Rockenfeller's two-stop strategy had become a three-stopper at a stroke.

"I thought the team hadn't realised about the pit window, so I didn't want to box," Rockenfeller remembers. "But they said, 'No, box. It will all work out OK," and it did because we finished second, even with the extra stop. We could have lost a lot of points, but we didn't because the strategy was right."

Even when the weather hasn't been a factor, Phoenix has still led the Audi line on strategy. Rockenfeller has failed to start from inside the top-10 four times in the eight races held so far, but the tactic of starting on standard Hankooks, stopping as early as possible for options and then running until there's simply no grip left, has worked a treat across the season.

The four races in question, at which he started 14th, 13th, 21st and 11th, have netted eighth, fourth, fifth and fourth come raceday. When starting inside the top 10, Rockenfeller has never been off the podium.

Granted, he wasn't the fastest Audi driver when he won at Moscow Raceway (that was Mattias Ekstrom), or last time out at Oschersleben (Jamie Green this time), but with the DTM's infamous team-orders strategies in place, assistance has been given whenever it's been needed.

Expect that pattern to continue in the Netherlands, despite the best efforts of Farfus and his BMW cohorts.

AUTOSPORT is streaming live video of the DTM qualifying and race from Zandvoort this weekend at 1.30pm BST on Saturday and 12.30pm BST on Sunday.

ROCKENFELLER AT ZANDVOORT

Rockenfeller's Zandvoort DTM debut in 2007. He finished in 10th place © XPB

2007 (start: 8, finish: 10)

Qualifies inside the top 10 for a third time in seven races in his rookie DTM season and has a quiet race in an old-spec Team Rosberg Audi to finish 10th - less than nine seconds from victory. Beats category star Bernd Schneider and future Formula 1 racer Paul di Resta.

2008 (start: 10, finish: 10)

Looks good for a points-scoring eighth place until he and Mercedes ace Schneider indulge in a spot of mirror-swapping on the penultimate lap. Both lose out to the advancing Markus Winkelhock, with Rockenfeller also falling behind Schneider in the final reckoning.

2009 (start: 4, finish: 12)

Rocky is not running at the finish, but is classified 16th. This later becomes 12th as four Audis are disqualified: Alexandre Premat and Timo Scheider for taking 'significantly long' to reach the weighbridge post-race, Christian Bakkerud for not even showing up and Winkelhock for not having enough fuel for a sample to be taken.

2010 (start: 9, finish: 13)

A strong race looks set to net a seventh-place finish for Rockenfeller's old-spec Phoenix A4 and a fourth helping of points from the season's opening six races. But a biff up the rear from Bruno Spengler's Mercedes with eight laps left at Vodafonebocht spins him round and drops him outside the points.

2011 (start: 3, finish: 1)

Driving an Abt Sportsline-run A4 for the only time at Zandvoort, Rockenfeller beats Jamie Green off the line to take second and then passes Bruno Spengler's Mercedes at the second round of fuel-and-tyre stops, the German finally assuming the lead at two-thirds distance after making an early second stop.

2012 (start: 2, finish: 2)

Leading by over four seconds and with the pitstops done, Rockenfeller is too cautious as light rain falls for a handful of laps. Fellow Audi man Edoardo Mortara closes in and passes with a robust move at Tarzan with 11 laps to go. Mortara fails in an earlier attempt to wrest the lead as Rockenfeller hugs the inside at the same corner moments after exiting the pits for the first time.