The ins and outs of the DTM

Between 12th and 14th September, you can watch 24 drivers in cars supplied by nine premium manufacturers (Aston Martin, Audi, BMW, Ferrari, Ford, Lamborghini, McLaren, Mercedes-AMG and Porsche) battling it out for championship points and victories. Going into the race weekend at the Red Bull Ring, no fewer than nine drivers are still in with a chance of winning the title, so it’s going to be a keenly contested event. At this penultimate fixture of the DTM season, Austrian fans will be cheering on current championship leader Lucas Auer, Thomas Preining and Austro-Italian Mirko Bortolotti in particular. Preining became the first Austrian in DTM history to secure the title in 2023, with Bortolotti following suit in 2024. And in 2025, Lucas Auer could at last clinch his first title in the iconic German racing series.

At the Red Bull Ring, you can see the drivers in action in their GT3 cars for over four hours (i.e. 250 minutes plus). Two free practice sessions (55 and 45 minutes respectively) are scheduled for Friday. Two 20-minute qualifying sessions on Saturday and Sunday morning will determine the starting grid for the respective races in the afternoon. Both DTM races will be over a distance of 55 minutes plus one lap.

A DTM race gets underway with a rolling start in an orderly two-row formation. It is always an impressive spectacle as the drivers in 24 thoroughbred racing cars proceed alert and determined towards the starting line, ready to unleash the full power of their cars at the same time.

In 2025, the ADAC introduced an additional mandatory pit stop in the DTM. This does not apply to the Saturday race, with drivers obliged to make only a single stop between the 20th and 40th minute of the race. On Sunday, however, contestants must complete their first performance pit stop between the 10th and 25th minute. The second pit stop has been introduced to differentiate the second race of the weekend more clearly from the first. The additional stop must be completed in a small time window between the 39th and 45th minute. This means that the drivers then have a 10-minute sprint to the black and white chequered flag.

As DTM fans know, the cars come in for some rough treatment. ‘Paint swapping’ hardly does justice to what is witnessed on the race track when multiple opponents battle wheel to wheel for points in tight corners. If a driver oversteps the mark with a passing manoeuvre, he has to serve a penalty lap. A penalty zone has been marked on the track away from the racing line for this purpose. This zone must be driven through at a maximum speed of 50 km/h, which costs the offender around five seconds.

The 15 best-placed drivers in a race are awarded championship points. The winner collects 25 points, while the runner-up earns 20. Third place on the podium is rewarded with 16 championship points, and fourth place with 13. From fifth place (eleven points) downwards, there is one point less per position, with 15th scoring just one. In addition, the three fastest drivers in each qualifying session score three, two and one point(s) respectively.

This means that a driver can score a maximum of 56 points per race weekend. However, no one has managed to do this yet in 2025. Porsche driver Ayhancan Güven (Manthey EMA team) came closest at the Sachsenring, where he won both races. Lucas Auer in his Mercedes-AMG is one of several drivers to have secured two separate perfect race days: the Tyrolean dominated both qualifying and the race on Saturday at Oschersleben and the Lausitzring.