April 21st, 2002

Since I've forgotten everything Keith taught me about HTML and putting stuff up on his web page, I thought I'd use the first round of the DTM today to get some practice as they also showed a view or two of the track construction. Took a coupla pix which I hope come out here OK as they were all aimed at the TV...

There are two races per DTM weekend, the first a "sprint" of 13 laps, the grid for which is determined by qualifying on Saturday. The 2nd is a proper race of 39 laps, and the grid for it is determined by the finishing order of the "sprint" race and follows VERY soon after (I think about 30 minutes). The 2nd race requires at least one pit stop. They used the "new version" of the short track.

Jean Alesi started the sprint from 14th place, got a super start and was around 9th by the first corner. He finished 8th, so that's where he started the 2nd race. And got to the first corner in 3rd, which is where he finished... Threw his helmet into the crowd..

Anyhow, here's a few pictures of the race results and the track. Note the first corner after the pit straight has changed a bit - they put a little "jink" to the left at the end of the straight and then tightened the corner substantially. Also the pit exit, although still emptying out at the end of the first corner, is not nearly as direct a drive on to the track as it used to be.

I'd been out there on my bicycle a month ago and was shocked at the state of the place. As you can see by the first picture, all the trees behind the rear side of the short course to where the new track will run have been removed. Must have taken quite some legislation to get this through...

The first picture shows an overall view from the top of one of their cranes. The second picture shows the revised end of the pit straight. The third is the qualifying (1st 8 cars only) for the DTM:

Construction	First Corner	Qualifying 1st 8 Only

The 4th picture is the first 8 finishers of the sprint, and the 5th picture shows places 9-16. The last picture shows the first 8 of the 39-lap race. They didn't show the remaining finishers.

Sprint Results 1st 8 places	2nd 8 places	Results 1st 8 places