Bruno Spengler beat out Renger van der Zande in the semi-final round and emerged as the best of the Mercedes-Benz groupBruno Spengler, driver of the Mercedes-Benz Bank AMG C-Class, beat out Renger van der Zande, driver of the Stern AMG Mercedes C-Class, in the semi-final round and emerged as the best of the Mercedes-Benz group. He then managed to finish runner-up in the first of two competitions held over the weekend as Audi driver Edoardo Mortara took top hornors.

For the first time ever, DTM racing was staged on a specially constructed circuit in a sports stadium. The 3,911 foot track has been laid out over an area of 18,000 square metres on top of 8,000 cubic metres of aggregate material in the arena of the Munich Olympic Stadium.

Race Mode: Saturday’s DTM proceedings began with two internal contests: Mercedes-Benz and Audi. The drivers were paired up for a series of eight three-lap stints. The eight fastest drivers from each marque then went through to the last sixteen. Qualification was based on times posted rather than the outcome of the individual bouts. Over the next three rounds (Last 16, Quarter-final and Semi-final), the fastest Audi driver and fastest Mercedes-Benz driver were identified. These two then battled it out in the final race over five laps, including a compulsory pit stop.

Prologue: Ralf Schumacher’s overall time 2:48.319 minutes was the fastest of all the Mercedes-Benz drivers. Bruno Spengler posted a fastest lap of 54.195 seconds. Because of a false start, however, he incurred a two-second penalty and ended the prologue in P5 behind David Coulthard. Susie Stoddart (TV Spielfilm AMG Mercedes C-Class) was ninth fastest so just missed out on qualifying.

Eighth finals: Ralf Schumacher got through to the next round with a time of 2:47.908 in a three-lap stint ahead of Maro Engel (GQ AMG Mercedes C-Class). Bruno Spengler won his duel with Jamie Green (AMG Mercedes C-Class) by 0.355 seconds. Despite incurring a two-second penalty for jumping the lights, David Coulthard still prevailed against Christian Vietoris (Junge Sterne AMG Mercedes C-Class) to move into the last 16. Renger van der Zande won his knock-out encounter with Gary Paffett (THOMAS SABO AMG Mercedes C-Class) by 0.629 seconds.

Quarter finals: After completing four laps and a compulsory pit stop, Bruno Spengler prevailed over Ralf Schumacher (Salzgitter AMG Mercedes C-Class) with an overall time of 3.49:100 minutes to go through to the semi-final. Renger van der Zande won his race against David Coulthard (Deutsche Post AMG Mercedes C-Class) by 1.658 seconds and joins Spengler in the next round.

Semi finals: Bruno Spengler won his race over a distance of four laps – including one mandatory pit stop – with an overall time of 3:52.885 minutes, 23.9 seconds faster than fellow Mercedes-Benz driver Renger van der Zande (stern AMG Mercedes C-Class). Spengler now goes into the final which will decide who takes the Saturday honours.

Final: In a hard-fought encounter, Bruno Spengler finished runner-up behind Edoardo Mortara (Audi). In two stints over a distance of ten laps, including two pit stops, Spengler posted an overall time of 9:26.205 minutes and a fastest lap of 53.603 seconds. He emerges from the first day of this special DTM weekend as the best of the Mercedes-Benz contingent.