Nearly one year ago, Joel Eriksson burst into the DTM history books by becoming the second-youngest race winner of all time. The site of the Swede’s sweet success was the Italian circuit of Misano, which will greet the field back to its demanding layout this weekend for round three of the 2019 campaign – and Eriksson arrives on the back of a fresh podium for good measure.
Finishing second to stablemate Philipp Eng last time out at Zolder, Eriksson helped his BMW Team RBM seal an emotional 1-2 win at home in Belgium, lending welcome momentum ahead of this weekend’s encounter on the outskirts of Rimini.
“I’m really looking forward to returning to Misano,” says Joel Eriksson. “I have great memories from last year obviously, achieving one of my life ambitions with my first DTM win, and it’s one of my favourite tracks. We had great pace in both the wet and dry and I can’t see why we shouldn’t be strong there again this season. The entire team is on a high after Zolder and hopefully we can build on that 1-2 win.”
Last year’s Misano races saw the welcome addition of guest driver Alex Zanardi, racing for BMW. This weekend sees another guest entrant make his DTM debut at the Italian track, when rival Audi enters MotoGP star Andrea Dovizioso for a one-off appearance.
As always, both of this weekend’s races – as well as practice and qualifying – are streamed online at www.dtm.com. Unlike last year’s Misano night races, this season’s heats in Italy take place at the regular DTM slot of 13.30 local time.
Practice begins on Friday.
TIME TABLE
DTM | Round 3/9
Misano (Italy)
Friday 7 June
Free Practice 1: 15.35-16.20
Free Practice 2: 18.25-18.55
Saturday 8 June
Qualifying 1: 10.30-10.50
Race 1: 13.30-14.30
Sunday 9 June
Qualifying 2: 10.45-11.05
Race 2: 13.30-14.30
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS (top five)
DTM | After 4/18 races
1: Philipp Eng (AUT), BMW, 59 p.
2: René Rast (GER), Audi, 54 p.
3: Marco Wittmann (GER), BMW, 43 p.
4: Mike Rockenfeller (GER), Audi, 42 p.
5: Nico Müller (SUI), Audi, 41 p.
—
11: Joel Eriksson (SWE), BMW, 20 p.
FURTHER INFORMATION
The championship: DTM 2019
Rules and regulations: how DTM works
FOLLOW JOEL ERIKSSON
Website: www.joelerikssonracing.com
Facebook: JoelErikssonRacing
Instagram: JoelEriksson
Live stream: www.dtm.com/live
