DTM Nürburgring: René Rast takes second victory of season for Audi

Fastest in free practice, pole position, a flawless race and also the fastest race lap: the 31-year old German had a perfect day at the wheel of his Audi RS 5 DTM on Saturday. Even so, the Audi driver was forced to work hard for the fifth victory of his DTM career. After having built up a comfortable lead during the opening third of the race, this shrank drastically after the tire change. From a lead as high as six seconds only 0.862 seconds remained at the flag. “That was an extremely tough race, especially the final ten minutes,” said Rast. “Bruno (Spengler) got closer and closer and I just couldn’t drive any faster. I was extremely happy when I saw the checkered flag. This result is obviously super for the championship. I hope it continues like this.” As a result of clinching his second victory of the season and the maximum points haul of 28 for pole position and victory, Rast moved up to fifth place in the overall standings. In the drivers’ championship, he is only one point behind the best placed BMW (Marco Wittmann) with 140 points still up for grabs. Edoardo Mortara (Mercedes-Benz), who is third in the standings, is now only 17 points ahead and has moved within striking distance of the defending champion. Mike Rockenfeller moved up to sixth place after making a late pit stop in his 150th DTM race. Team mate Loïc Duval used the same strategy from the penultimate start position to take seventh. Audi Sport Team Phoenix thus scored points with both cars in its home race. Nico Müller from Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline fought from 16th on the grid to tenth and in doing so score a point. Only Jamie Green (14th place) and Robin Frijns (17th place) went away empty handed on Saturday.