Hankook, DTM celebrate 2015 finale at Hockenheim

The grand finale of the DTM season will be contested on the Hockenheimring, as is traditional, and the touring car series’ exclusive tyre supplier, Hankook will this year celebrate five years and 56 races. For Pascal Wehrlein, the final weekend could turn into a victory parade. The Mercedes-Benz driver currently leads the drivers’ classification with a 37-point advantage and has been allocated just 2.5kg more performance weight than his closest rivals Edoardo Mortara and Mattias Ekström (both Audi).

At the season-opening doubleheader on the Hockenheimring, the 20-year-old made a promising start with a second and an eighth placing. The two Audi pilots, however, scored a win as well as a fourth and second place respectively, keeping the title fight gripping. In the team and manufacturer championships, Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz are all within striking distance of claiming the trophies.

Hankook states that the Hockenheim circuit always poses a real challenge for tyres, with its high speed straights, fast and slow passages as well as the high, sharp kerbs. “As in previous years, the Ventus Race rubber performed perfectly at Hockenheim and easily mastered the enormous stresses that are placed on the tread and structure. And the high kerbs don’t affect the structure of the Hankook race tyres either,” explains Hankook’s DTM race engineer Thomas Baltes.

In contrast to the season-opening weekend, cold weather could play a role here at this time of year. With very low track temperatures, the teams must find the best setup in qualifying so that the Hankook race tyres can quickly reach the optimal temperature. Thomas Baltes: “The expected cool temperatures will pose a challenge for all the teams, but this is one they can meet this by increasing the tyre pressure. If temperatures drop to around freezing, however, reaching the ideal tread temperature will be virtually impossible.”