DTM – Thriller in Moscow: Audi driver Ekström in front again

Date: 23 juillet 2017

With a spectacular comeback drive Audi campaigner Mattias Ekström (Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline) has recaptured the lead in the DTM. Following the turbulent first race of the second half of the season, three Audi drivers are now ranking in the top four spots of the overall classification.

Sunday’s race at Moscow Raceway was a real thriller. Following an early safety car period, the drivers who had not pitted yet for their tire change had a disadvantage. They included Mattias Ekström who, after having clearly led the race in the beginning, dropped to tenth place, having to recover position by position afterwards. The toughest rival he was up against in his comeback drive was reigning champion Marco Wittmann (BMW) whom Ekström, following a fierce duel on the penultimate lap, displaced from position two. Subsequently, the Audi driver still chased race leader Maro Engel (Mercedes-Benz), who had changed tires as early as on lap one and was clearly slower than Ekström in the final stage. On seeing the checkered flag, the Swede was merely 0.376 seconds short of clinching his first win this season. “After Budapest, this is the second time a safety car cost me victory,” Ekström said after the race marked by tough duels and spectacular overtaking maneuvers. “In the beginning, I was battling for the lead with Bruno (Spengler). On the long run, I was faster and able to overtake him. As a result of the safety car, the cards were reshuffled. From then on, it was a highly entertaining race. In the end, I’m very happy with second place today, 20 points from qualifying and the races, plus the lead of the standings.” At Moscow Raceway on Sunday, nothing was handed for free to the other Audi drivers either. René Rast, Jamie Green (both Audi Sport Team Rosberg) and Mike Rockenfeller (Audi Sport Team Phoenix) with bold maneuvers from rear positions advanced to fourth (Rast), fifth (Green) and seventh (Rockenfeller) place. After the end of the race, Rockenfeller received a 5-second time penalty that cost him his position in the points. Loïc Duval was in the group of drivers having pitted before the safety car period. As a result of this strategy, the Frenchman was running in fourth place some of the time, but shortly before the end of the race was touched by two rivals and dropped to position 14. By contrast, Nico Müller drove an exceedingly long first stint. Up until four laps before the race ended, the Swiss was defending his lead before making his pit stop. “That was an incredibly thrilling race,” said Head of Audi Motorsport Dieter Gass. “From lights to flag, there were gripping duels and overtaking maneuvers. This race had everything DTM fans would like to see. Without the safety car we might have been able to win today as well. But even so, it was a good result for us on the whole, with three cars in the points, plus one podium. In all the championships, we’re now in a good position.” The drivers’ classification is now led by Mattias Ekström, trailed by René Rast with a one-point deficit. Jamie Green and Mike Rockenfeller maintain positions four and five. In the manufacturers’ standings, Audi has extended its advantage to 90 points. In the teams’ classification, two Audi teams – Audi Sport Team Rosberg and Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline – are in the top spots after ten of 18 races.

Dieter Gass (Head of Audi Motorsport) “We’ve seen two tremendous races again in Moscow. Especially Sunday was incredibly action-packed from lights to flag. As a motorsport fan, you couldn’t wish for better entertainment. From Audi’s perspective, the one-two win on Saturday was obviously a dream. On Sunday, like previously in Budapest, the early safety car thwarted our plans. Fortunately, our guys managed to battle their way through the field back to the front, improving our position in all three championships as a result. That’s what we’d like to build on at Zandvoort four weeks from now where, in terms of the tires, we may be in for the greatest challenge of the year. As a DTM fan, I wouldn’t miss out on Zandvoort.” Mattias Ekström (Red Bull Audi RS 5 DTM #5) position 8 / position 2 “Basically, I’m very happy with my performance this weekend. It’s a shame that Timo Glock pushed me off track in Saturday’s race. That cost me a lot of time and I had a few technical issues as a result as well. The race on Sunday was very entertaining.” René Rast (AUTO BILD MOTORSPORT Audi RS 5 DTM #33) position 1 / position 4 “A good weekend, I scored a lot of points. On Saturday, I won and on Sunday I came fourth, plus I took three points home from the qualifying sessions. So, as far as that goes, I’m happy. However, in the second race we could have even finished third with a better stop. I lost a lot of time pitting. Fortunately, the field was compressed again afterwards and I was able to make up ground. In the end, we got off lightly.” Jamie Green (Hoffmann Group Audi RS 5 DTM #53) position 9 / position 5 “This wasn’t an easy weekend for me because I didn’t manage to extract the optimum out of the car in the qualifying sessions. In the races, especially on Sunday with position five, things were clearly going better. That makes me optimistic that we’ll be able to strike back in the next round at Zandvoort.” Mike Rockenfeller (Schaeffler Audi RS 5 DTM #99) position 2 / position 14 “Arriving here with a broken foot without even knowing if I’d be able to drive at all and then going home with a second place is definitely great. Obviously, I’d have liked finishing on podium on Sunday too, but from position 16 that’s difficult, especially since the safety car didn’t exactly play into our hands. But, as I said, considering that I had to brake with my right foot, I’m extremely happy. Thank you to Audi, my team, my doctors, my physiotherapists and all the others who made it possible for me to be able to race here in the first place. And congratulations to René (Rast) on his victory on Saturday and to Eki (Mattias Ekström) on the lead of the standings.” Nico Müller (Playboy Audi RS 5 DTM #51) position 15 / position 16 “I had great expectations of Moscow because I was always doing well here in the past. Unfortunately, a lot went wrong in the qualifying sessions. On Saturday, I was unfortunate with the yellow flag. In addition, the set-up wasn’t right. And on Sunday, I was completely lacking pace. Normally, I’m always good in qualifying, but there are days like these in the DTM where a lot of things don’t fit. And if you have to start from the rear, racing becomes difficult for us in the DTM – this is exactly what I experienced here in Moscow. Zero points – that’s painful. But at Zandvoort, we’re going to attack again.” Loïc Duval (Castrol EDGE Audi RS 5 DTM #77) position 11 / position 15 “In the light of the point scores, things are obviously looking very bad, so I’m disappointed too. But the fact that our speed was good throughout the weekend is a positive. We were in the top ten in all the qualifying sessions. Unfortunately, a better result in the race on Saturday wasn’t possible because of the grid penalty. On Sunday, things initially looked promising with our strategy. But, unfortunately, this turned out to be the race where we had the worst vehicle balance of the whole weekend and weren’t competitive. I feel that we’d have deserved taking points home from Moscow. In the end, it was at least a positive result for Audi and I’m happy about that too. Now I’m looking ahead to Zandvoort and hope that we’ll be able to build on our development there.”

Thomas Biermaier (Team Director Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline) “Mattias (Ekström) showed another awesome performance this weekend and deservedly continues heading the standings. On Saturday, Timo Glock unfortunately cost him valuable points and on Sunday, the safety car thwarted our plans. But the way he fought back to the front was Eki at his best. I take my hat off! For Nico (Müller), unfortunately, this was a weekend to forget. It already started on Saturday in qualifying with the yellow flag that came at exactly the wrong time for him. We’re going to get past that now and are excited about Zandvoort where we intend to extend Eki’s lead.” Ernst Moser (Team Director Audi Sport Team Phoenix) “Personally, I always enjoy coming to Moscow, not least because we’re always pretty successful here. This is particularly true for Rocky (Mike Rockenfeller). He again showed a strong performance here this time. That he finished on podium on Saturday in spite of his injured foot was amazing. With Loïc (Duval) we were lacking a bit of fortune in the race. In the qualifying sessions, he was just a few tenths away from the top 3 positions.” Arno Zensen (Team Director Audi Sport Team Rosberg) “A tremendous weekend for us with another victory. After René (Rast) won on Saturday, we were able to score important additional points on Sunday with him in fourth and Jamie (Green) in fifth place. Unfortunately, our pit stops on Sunday didn’t go well at all. We know that we have to improve there and are intensively working on that. In the teams’ championship we’ve extended our advantage to 50 points and in the drivers’ championship, René is trailing the front runner, Eki (Mattias Ekström), by just one point, so we’re traveling to the next round at Zandvoort with respective motivation.”

The DTM will continue at Zandvoort on the Dutch North Sea Coast on August 19 and 20.

Press release Audi Sport

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