Audi driver René Rast achieved the perfect DTM weekend at the Nürburgring: As he did on Saturday, the defending champion also claimed pole position and victory on Sunday. As a result, he scored the maximum possible points with his Audi RS 5 DTM and moved up to third overall in the overall standings.
56 points in two days! This had never been the case in the DTM since the current race format was introduced. Six thousandths of a second made it possible: Rast grabbed pole position on Sunday from championship leader Gary Paffett in Mercedes-Benz by this miniscule amount, and in doing so claimed the first three points of the day. 25 more followed after a commanding drive to victory, the sixth so far in his DTM career.
Rast made yet another perfect start from pole position. On the opening lap he cleverly held Gary Paffett behind him, before making good his escape and subsequently benefitting from the skirmishes in the chasing pack. After all the pit stops had been made, the German from Audi Sport Team Rosberg held a lead of over eight seconds, which he managed to the flag. Rast took the checkered flag 2.739 seconds ahead of current second placed championship contender Paul Di Resta in Mercedes-Benz. Afterwards he was presented the winner’s trophy by FIA President Jean Todt.
“The race was just as hard as it was on Saturday,” said Rast. “I really had to fight hard with the car in the end. But we took the maximum points haul and third place in the championship. It was an unbelievable weekend with two poles and two wins. I’m stuck for words!”
With two race weekends remaining on September 22 – 23 at the Red Bull Ring in Austria and October 13 – 14 at Hockenheim, Rast is only 57 points behind championship leader Gary Paffett. A total of 112 points are still up for grabs in the remaining four DTM races.
“It’s absolutely incredible, I’m speechless as well,” said Head of Audi Motorsport Dieter Gass. “Two wins and two pole positions for René (Rast) – I don’t know how he does it. Obviously it’s fantastic for René, but also fantastic for Audi. After the difficult start to the season we couldn’t really expect this. We never gave up and improved the car little by little within the confines of the limited possibilities that the regulations allow.”
With Robin Frijns from Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline another Audi driver scored points in the Sunday’s race. The Dutchman fought from the last row of the grid to tenth position. In the process he benefitted from innumerable skirmishes and collisions through which four of his stablemates – Loïc Duval, Mike Rockenfeller, Nico Müller and Jamie Green – also dropped back down the running order. They finished eleventh, twelfth, 13 and 15 respectively.
