The most challenging corner in the DTM

When you think about the most challenging corners in motorsport, Monza's Parabolica, Suzuka's Esses and Turn 8 at Istanbul Park immediately spring into mind, don't they?

But what about this one for size; Turn 1 at Oschersleben. Right about now I'd guess most of you are thinking, 'what planet is this guy on?' Stick with me though, there's logic behind the apparent madness.

All hell is about to break loose out of Turns 1 and 2 © suttons

Oschersleben isn't exactly what you'd call a driver's circuit. Opened in 1998 and located about halfway between Hannover and Berlin - i.e. the middle of nowhere in the old East Germany - a succession of long and tedious second and third gear corners punctuated by short straights don't leave the great and the good of international racing itching to return (or even hang around, given how quickly some of the drivers left after last weekend's DTM round).

But in among its 2.293 miles is a corner of immense challenge. Tightened up in 2007, Turn 1 is a brute of a corner; 90 degrees with little or no margin for error on the way in or out and a massively compromised run through the long right-hander that follows for anybody applying the power too early.

From a vantage point at the entrance to Turn 2, it's easy to see the challenge posed by what precedes it.

You can't take more than a small bite of kerb on the right as you turn in, because there's a tyre stack right next to it that not only prevents corner-cutting, but limits visibility too - something that would lead Oliver Jarvis to hit Ralf Schumacher during the race as the German rejoined carelessly from a spin. Then on the exit, even if you've made the corner, you're straight into Turn 2, meaning that even a small application of power - something that would usually be enough to help pivot the car through the bend - is more of a hindrance than a help at this stage.

And that's if you manage to make it. If you don't, you have two horribly positioned tyre barriers that make traversing a very uninviting gravel trap and rejoining impossible.

Fortunately, there is a patch of asphalt run-off that appears head-on as drivers approach the turn, and this was put to good use by Mattias Ekstrom, Mike Rockenfeller and Timo Scheider during Friday practice; all three pushing the limits of the Audi A4 DTM's turning circle to get out without making it to the gravel. Nobody got it wrong quite as drastically as the Abt trio, but very few failed to miss the apex and run wide during the 90-minute session.

Jamie Green carries too much speed into T1 and runs wide as a result © suttons

"It's not such an easy turn," says Persson Mercedes driver Renger van der Zande. "Especially in practice when you're not using new tyres, the grip is not always there.

"The real problem is that it follows the longest straight on the circuit, and so it's a big brake down to 40mph. You've got such a narrow window in which to brake that it's very easy to run on. You can be maybe 1.5 seconds into a lap and it's time to brake, and if you make a mistake, that's the whole lap gone already. If that happens in qualifying, then you've maybe ruined a set of tyres too."

Getting through one at a time is one thing. Getting a pack of 18 DTM Audis and Mercedes, all trying to put 480bhp down through their rear Hankooks, is quite another. Throw some rain into the equation and you've got a recipe for disaster.

"Something usually happens there for someone," said Martin Tomczyk after qualifying last weekend, knowing full well that he'd be starting the race from 14th on the grid.

"If there's an accident then it could be good for me. Or it could be bad. If there are 13 cars ahead of me, it means I'll have to avoid whatever happens, and that's not easy - not through there."

He was right. Polesitter Miguel Molina locked up his rears and slid wide at the wet start, putting two wheels off the circuit and tipping his team-mate Scheider into a spin upon rejoining. The result was a scattering of the pack and a further collision between Susie Stoddart and David Coulthard, with the ex-F1 racer also ending up facing the wrong way.

Even more insane is the pit exit. A tight left mirrors that taken on-track, and then drivers negotiate an almost identical right just as the crash barrier comes to an end.

With the track taking a slight but significant uphill incline between Turns 1 and 2, drivers often exit the pits with no idea who or what they may be about to encounter, so low are they sat in the car.

During practice there were no dramas as drivers simply stood on the brakes when a faster car came into view and waited for a safe joining point, but come raceday every tenth of a second was crucial, and running two abreast - especially in wet conditions - isn't exactly advisable.

Ekstrom arrives at T2 on too tight a line after missing T1 apex © suttons

HWA Mercedes driver Gary Paffett sheds some light on the difficulty of door-banging. "They used to have a bit of asphalt on the inside of Turn 2 beyond the Ludwig kerbs [high and non-permanent kerbs placed on the inside of regular kerbs to prevent corner-cutting and devised by DTM legend Klaus Ludwig] that you could run over if you were side-by-side in that corner. But they've gone now so you've just got to hope you come out the other side. We asked if it was okay to go on the grass in the drivers' briefing and they said it was okay."

There was a fair amount of side-by-side running during the race, certainly more than had it stayed dry, but it's unlikely that the challenge of Turn 1 would have been any less, no matter what the conditions.

For now, that little patch of asphalt remains one of the biggest challenges for drivers in the DTM.

See, perhaps the idea isn't quite so mad after all.