DTM Lausitzring: Jamie Green best Audi driver in sixth place thanks to tire gamble

Green changed tires on the first lap already and with this strategy was able to drive most of the time alone and out of traffic. In the process, the Briton preserved his tires to such an extent that he could still overtake BMW driver Philipp Eng on the last lap and, in doing so, claim his first points of the season – just reward for the Audi Sport Team Rosberg mechanics who had a huge amount of work to repair the Hoffmann Group Audi RS 5 DTM after Green’s start line accident on Saturday. “I had to drive 33 laps on one set of tires, but my car was good and consistent,” said Green. “The tires didn’t deteriorate because the balance of my car was good.” Mike Rockenfeller started as best Audi driver in the Schaeffler Audi RS 5 DTM from fifth place. After dropping out of the top ten in the opening laps, “Rocky” changed tires early and claimed four points as a result. Robin Frijns opted for a similar strategy in the Aral Ultimate Audi RS 5 DTM and scored his first point in the DTM. Three laps before the finish, he ousted Saturday’s winner Edoardo Mortara in Mercedes-Benz from tenth place. 

Dieter Gass (Head of Audi Motorsport) “In general it was a rough weekend for us. Apart from the accidents on Saturday in which thankfully nothing happened to the drivers, we were again lacking in performance. Jamie’s race on Sunday was obviously excellent, especially his tire management after the risky strategy and the pit stop on lap one. Mike’s race was also good and Robin scored his first point in the DTM. Compared to Saturday we could improve slightly. But we are not where we want to be.” Jamie Green (Hoffmann Group Audi RS 5 DTM #53) DNF / position 6 “My weekend was similarly disappointing to the one in Hockenheim: I wasn’t fast enough in qualifying. So, in this regard we haven’t made any progress. At least I had a good race on Sunday, which took me to position six from 16th on the grid. It was a good performance, but we all have a huge amount to do.” Mike Rockenfeller (Schaeffler Audi RS 5 DTM #99) position 11 / position 8 “We extracted the maximum in both qualifying sessions, but not in both races. The race results were disappointing with eleventh and eighth positions. I hope that we can get to understand the car a little better before Budapest.” Robin Frijns (Aral Ultimate Audi RS 5 DTM #4) position 13 / position 10 “On the whole a pretty tough weekend for Audi and us. Although I scored my first point in the DTM, I want to fight for podiums and top-five positions. There’s a lot of work to do.” Loïc Duval (Audi Sport RS 5 DTM #28) position 15 / position 13 “A frustrating weekend! The touch with René (Rast) on Saturday was unfortunate. In qualifying on Sunday I didn’t get a clear lap. Tenth on the grid was possible and then my race would have looked completely different. Unfortunately, our strategy of stopping late didn’t work either as I couldn’t overtake.” Nico Müller (Castrol EDGE Audi RS 5 DTM #51) DNF / position 17 “Retired on Saturday, 17th on Sunday, no points: this is frustrating. The race on Sunday was particularly disappointing. I had slight damage on the car after an early collision but was just much too slow.” René Rast (Audi Sport RS 5 DTM #33) DNF / DNS “That was a black weekend! In Saturday’s qualifying only 15th place and my race was over relatively quickly due to the accident. It was definitely correct that the doctors didn’t give me the OK to drive on Sunday. At least Jamie (Green) scored a few points after finishing sixth.”