Having jetted across the globe after his China GT outing in Shanghai, Joel Eriksson is back in Europe and ready to resume life in his regular habitat as he heads to the streets of Nuremberg for round four of the DTM campaign this weekend.
As the only city-centre track on the calendar, Nuremberg’s Norisring circuit holds a unique place on the schedule, with Eriksson set to take on the barrier-lined venue for the fourth time of his career (2016-2017 in F3, 2018-2019 in DTM) once action begins on Friday.
Eriksson brought home a top ten result at the Bavarian track – located just 160 km from BMW’s base in Munich – last season, and nurtures hopes for more on his return to “Franconian Monaco” in ‘19.
“I am really looking forward to returning to Norisring,” says Joel Eriksson. “I love street circuits and I really enjoy driving there. Without a doubt it is one of the absolute highlights on the DTM calendar. I can hardly wait to see all the fans and spectators, and just soak up the atmosphere at our home event. We were competitive already last year and I’d like to think I’m even better placed this time around with some more experience.”
Eriksson last entered a street race at the 2018 Macau Formula 3 Grand Prix back in November, finishing runner-up in the prestigious Asian event despite having not contested the F3 category throughout the season.
The wide Norisring track presents a completely different cup of tea to Macau’s long and winding layout, however, featuring just four corners in the shortest lap of the season at 2.3 km.
“Street tracks are all unique and Norisring is quite a lot different to most of the others,” Eriksson continues. “It’s wide and short, the lap time is not even a minute, and it’s all about braking for the two hairpins and nailing the Schöller-S in between. Track progression is big and you need to estimate how the grip evolves during the sessions. The DTM is such a competitive series and I fully expect us to be fighting for thousandths of a second this weekend.”
Joel Eriksson heads to Nuremberg sitting ninth in the overall DTM standings. The Swede, who just turned 21, has a season-best result of P2 to show from the opening six races of the campaign.
TIME TABLE
DTM | Round 4/9
Norisring (Germany)
Friday 5 July
Free Practice 1: 13.00-13.50
Free Practice2: 16.15-16.50
Saturday 6 July
Qualifying 1: 10.25-10.45
Race 1: 13.30-14.30
Sunday 7 July
Qualifying2: 10.35-10.55
Race 2: 13.30-14.30
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS (top five)
DTM | After 6/18 races
1: René Rast (GER), Audi, 93 p.
2: Philipp Eng (AUT), BMW, 83 p.
3: Nico Müller (SUI), Audi, 76 p.
4: Marco Wittmann (GER), BMW, 68 p.
5: Mike Rockenfeller (GER), Audi, 51 p.
—
9: Joel Eriksson (SWE), BMW, 28 p.
FURTHER INFORMATION
The championship: DTM 2019
Rules and regulations: how DTM works
FOLLOW JOEL ERIKSSON
Website: www.joelerikssonracing.com
Facebook: JoelErikssonRacing
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Live stream: www.dtm.com/live
