The DTM and SUPER GT will not use a Balance of Performance for the first qualifying and race of the Hockenheim weekend.
Motorsport.com understands the two series met on Friday night to discuss the potential implementation of a BoP, with the Hockenheim weekend initially planned to help equalise the cars for the Fuji joint-races on November 22-24.
After the SUPER GT entries from Nissan, Lexus and Honda undertook two hours of testing on Thursday, wet conditions on Friday made the competitive picture difficult to read.
TOM’S Lexus driver Nick Cassidy and Nismo Nissan’s Tsugio Matsuda both crashed in free practice one, while Button ran untroubled.
The 2009 Formula 1 world champion then set a time good enough for 16th in the second practice – 2.6 seconds off Timo Glock’s benchmark as the three SUPER GT entries averaged a best lap time that was within 103.0433% of Glock’s.
The wet conditions are set to remain during the weekend and potentially worsen.
The weather, along with SUPER GT organisers GTA and DTM counterpart ITR taking a longer-term view of the joint-racing meant the decision was made to run without a BoP on Saturday.
Motorsport.com understands the decision could be reviewed following Saturday’s action depending on how the SUPER GT and DTM machines match up.
The SUPER GT squads are running with Hankook engineers embedded in the team to help adaptation.
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