A rookie rocks the DTM. In front of 39,500 spectators at the Hungaroring on Sunday, René Rast claimed his maiden win from fellow Audi driver Mattias Ekstrom and BMW’s Maxime Martin in what was only his ninth race in the ‘Champions League of touring car racing’.
In fourth and fifth place respectively, Nico Muller and Jamie Green rounded out the very good result for Audi. In the morning, Rast had already secured pole position in Hungary. With a total of 70 points and one point clear of Mercedes-AMG driver Lucas Auer, the driver from Minden took the lead in the DTM drivers’ standings. Next up are Green (65) and Ekstrom (62).
“I can’t really find words to describe my feelings. I have been waiting for this moment all my career. Crossing the finish line in first place in the DTM is one of the best feelings I have ever had in motorsport. The points’ lead is the icing on the cake. In the past weeks, we have been working hard to improve. Today is a nice reward for that,” a buoyant Rast said.
On the day before, Mercedes-AMG driver Paul Di Resta and the two BMW drivers Timo Glock and Bruno Spengler were the only ones to benefit from an early safety car intervention and the pit stop they had completed just before that and all made it onto the podium.
On Sunday, all manufacturers showed that they had learned from that. Twelve laps into the race, all 18 drivers bar Mercedes-AMG’s Maro Engel, who followed on lap 17, already had completed their stops. There was bad luck for Mike Rockenfeller, whose Audi had to turn into the pits because of a disfunctioning brake line just before the start. ‘Rocky’, who was fifth after qualifying, joined the field from the pitlane to start the race. At least, he still managed to score one point by finishing tenth.
Thus, the order in front with 25 minutes to go was Mattias Ekström from Rast and BMW driver Maxime Martin, who had already come into the pits on lap one. Further down the ranks, there weren’t any position changes either for a long time, until Audi driver Jamie Green first overtook yesterday’s race winner Paul Di Resta for sixth on lap 27 and defending champion Marco Wittmann (BMW) for fifth two laps later.
Soon after that, last year’s champion had to retire with two laps remaining. On lap 31, Rast overtook Ekstrom for the lead. “I knew that Mattias had stopped early and had done a few laps more with his tyres. I followed him for a while, until I saw that he was sliding more than usual in the corners and then I activated my DRS and attacked him,” Rast explained. He had come in for a tyre change on lap eleven, eight laps after the Swede.
All in all, Mattias Ekström was very happy with his weekend: “Having lost ground to Nico and René at the start, I reckoned that stopping early would be my only chance. After I rejoined the race, I had a clear track and I was able to drive as fast as I could. Towards the end, however, I started sliding more and more."
"Defending my podium position was important, so I didn’t attack all out anymore. A pair of third places in qualifying, one fifth and one second place in the races. I was able to score some points here.” Now, however, the Swede is facing a tough challenge away from the race track. The next DTM round at the Norisring, from 30 June till 2 July, clashes with his home round of the world rallycross championship round in the Höljes Motorstadion. In both championship standings, ‘Eki’ is eight poins down on the leaders, with good perspectives.
“I am somebody who is happy to make decisions, but I am glad that this decision isn’t mine to make. No matter how you decide, there will always be people saying: ‘Just how could you decide like that?’ Dieter Gass really has a nice job,” Ekström said with irony towards his boss.
Classified third, Maxime Martin was also happy after his progress from 18th place on the grid. “I hadn’t expected that. I had opted for an aggressive strategy to see where I would end up. I wasn’t too far away from the duo at the front. Yesterday, I had some technical problems. When you are last after qualifying and then finish on the podium, the weekend wasn’t one to forget after all,” the Belgian said.
Lucas Auer, on the other hand, had a horrendous day. The Austrian started sixth, locked up under braking during his pit stop on lap six and almost ran over the foot of one of his mechanics in the process. He parked his car at such an angle that the mechanics were hardly able to reach the right rear wheel with the airgun, which cost the former points’ leader a lot of time.
After 23 laps, ‘Luggi’ had to park his Mercedes-AMG in the pits with a technical problem. “I had some slight problems to begin with that finally got worse, which is why I parked up, to be on the safe side. I couldn't continue any further."
"Too bad, because, going by the qualifyings yesterday and today, it looked like I might be able to at least grab a few points."
"I locked up a little when pitting, but that's just how it goes sometimes in motor racing. We've still got another six race weekends, so there's still everything to play for,“ Auer said. Paul Di Resta was the best-placed Mercedes-AMG driver in sixth place in race two.
