2007 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters

Season summary

The season started dramatically with massive crash on opening lap of Hockenheim race. As a result, Tom Kristensen and Alexandre Prémat were forced to sit out races.

The season also included many controversial moments. In Lausitzring, the safety car caught the wrong driver and this shook up race results almost completely. Organizers admitted that Mika Häkkinen deserved the win and Paul di Resta second place, but other drivers were not in the places where they should have been. As a result, half points were awarded and thus race director Roland Bruynseraede was sacked on 31 May 2007.

At Zandvoort, Audi drivers swapped positions on the start/finish straight on the final lap, handing the race win to Martin Tomczyk instead of Prémat. Audi Motorsport Director Wolfgang Ullrich denied the presence of team orders and instead said that Prémat did the move on his own.

At the Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona before 42,000 spectators, Häkkinen collided with Martin Tomczyk and Daniel la Rosa with Mattias Ekström. This and couple of other incidents caused that all Audi drivers withdrew from the race on the instruction of Audi Motorsport Director Wolfgang Ullrich with nine laps to go. Häkkinen and la Rosa were excluded from the race (which was meaningless as both drivers retired in the incidents), fined and given 10-place grid penalty for final race of the season.

This was the final season that Vodafone was a front windscreen sponsor as well as Blaupunkt as a front vehicle plate sponsor.

Teams and drivers

The following manufacturers, teams and drivers competed in the 2007 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters. All teams competed with tyres supplied by Dunlop.

Driver changes

Jean Alesi left the DTM after five seasons in the championship, citing frustration with driving a year old car in 2006.

2006 Formula 3 Euro Series champion Paul di Resta joined the series with Persson Motorsport.

Stefan Mücke left the series after five seasons. He was replaced at Mücke Motorsport by Mathias Lauda who had driven for Perrsson Motorsport the previous season.

2005 DTM champion Gary Paffett returned to the series with Perrsson Motorsport after spending the previous year focussing on his role as test driver at the McLaren F1 Team.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen left the series after claiming that he had no support from Audi. He was replaced by Timo Scheider who had driven for Team Rosberg the previous season.

Mike Rockenfeller and Lucas Luhr joined the series with Team Rosberg after both switching from being Porsche factory drivers to Audi factory drivers.

GP2 frontrunner Alexandre Prémat joined the series with Team Phoenix.

GP2 driver Adam Carroll joined the series with Futurecom TME.

Pierre Kaffer and Frank Stippler both left the series.

Mid season changes

Tom Kristensen had to miss three rounds due to injuries sustained at the season opener in Hockenheim. He was replaced by Frank Biela at Oschersleben and Markus Winkelhock at EuroSpeedway and Brands Hatch.

Alexandre Prémat had to miss the Oschersleben round due to injuries sustained at the season opener in Hockenheim. He was replaced by Marco Werner.

Adam Carroll left Futurecom TME after the fifth round after failing to fulfill sponsorship obligations and returned to the GP2 Series. He was replaced by Markus Winkelhock for the remainder of the season.

Race calendar and winners

Championship standings

Scoring system

Points are awarded to the top 8 classified finishers.

Drivers' championship

Bold – Pole

Italics – Fastest Lap |}

• † — Driver retired, but was classified as they completed 90% of the winner's race distance. • Half points were awarded at EuroSpeedway because of mistakes by race director during the safety car period. (Points were awarded 5-4-3-2.5-2-1.5-1-0.5).

Teams' championship

References

References

1. Meissner, Johan. (24 April 2007). "Kristensen and Prémat are ok".
2. Dumitru, Mihai. (21 November 2012). "Werner, Biela to fill in for Prémat, Kristensen".
3. (31 May 2007). "DTM: Personeelswisselingen in wedstrijdleiding DTM". autosport.nl.
4. (29 July 2007). "Tomczyk inherits win".
5. (29 July 2007). "Ullrich: "Fahrer haben selbst entschieden"".
6. Collantine, Keith. (23 September 2007). "DTM Barcelona: Scandal as Audi withdraw". RaceFans.
7. Wester, Arno. (23 September 2022). "DTM heute vor 15 Jahren: Der unglaubliche Barcelona-Skandal". Motorsport Magazin.
8. "Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters Summary 2007". Motorsport Stats.
9. "DTM (German Touringcar Masters) – 2007: Entrylist". Speedsport Magazine.
10. "Alesi to leave DTM after this year".
11. (8 September 2006). "Many new teams up for 2007".
12. (17 February 2007). "Stefan Mucke quits the DTM".
13. "Mercedes confirm Paffett return".
14. "Frentzen hits out at Audi team".
15. "Audi completes squad for 2007 DTM".
16. "Carroll gets final Audi seat".
17. "Biela to replace Kristensen".
18. "Winkelhock Joins Audi".
19. "Premat set for layoff".
20. "Carroll dropped by TME".
21. "Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters Results 2007". Motorsport Stats.
22. "DTM (German Touringcar Masters) – 2007: Point standings". Speedsport Magazine.
23. "Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters Standings 2007". Motorsport Stats.
24. "2007 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters Drivers' Standings". TouringCars.net.