Lucas Auer was the winner in the rain gamble at the Nürburgring on Saturday. With his third win of the season and the fourth victory of his DTM career, the Mercedes-AMG driver moved up to within one point from Mattias Ekström. The Audi driver defended his lead with 128 points, even through he didn’t score any points due to the wrong tyre choice in the first race of the weekend at the cloudy Eifel track.
While the six AMG drivers all ended up in the top ten in cold and wet conditions and made the Mercedes star shine particularly brightly, Audi had a rather disappointing race and the BMW drivers weren’t very successful either. Auer, Paul Di Resta, Robert Wickens and Maro Engel secured the clean sweep of the top four for the brand from Stuttgart. Fifth place went to René Rast; the Audi driver is now third in the drivers’ standings with 124 points. The top trio is separated by only four points. For the final five races of the season, the DTM is promising sheer drama. “It was a difficult race, but with a good result at the end. In fifth place, I am the best-placed Audi driver and I have again scored valuable points for the championship. That was what today was about,” Rast said. For the race on Sunday, he will be dropped five places on the grid: for a collision with Engel, Rast incurred his third warning of the season.
“It was a crazy day. I knew that the track would dry out, but nobody knew whether another shower would come or not. We waited long before making our pit stop and we went out on rain tyres again. Today, that was the right decision,” said Auer, who, together with Wickens, only came into the pits on lap 24. After the finish, the Austrian kept expectations concerning his title chances rather low: “Prior to the weekend, everybody said that I had to deliver, otherwise I would no longer be in contention for the championship. 24 hours later, everybody says that I am second, only one point down. Everything is still open. The only thing to do is to remain cool. Probably, nothing will be decided before the final race.”
A few minutes before the start of the race, there was a heavy downpour. All 18 drivers opted for rain tyres. Augusto Farfus had the best getaway. Even before the first corner, the BMW driver moved up from fourth to first place from Auer and Di Resta. The Brazilian gradually extended his margin, but then, like points’ leader Ekström, made a decision with heavy consequences on lap 19. At a drying track, both had slicks mounted on their cars during their pit stops. Soon after that, rain set in again and both Farfus, who had clearly been in the lead until that point, and ‘Eki’ then had to correct this mistake with yet another stop that unnecessarily cost extra time.
“I had a perfect start and a perfect first stint. We had victory in our hands. It is sad when you throw it away just like that. Right when I had changed to slicks, rain set in again. The weather in the Eifel wasn’t kind to me today,” Farfus said. At least, he scored three points for finishing eighth. Ekström finished 15th and didn’t score any points for the third time this season. The Swede was accordingly disappointed: “There wasn’t much I could do. When you are not allowed to talk to the team on the radio, it turns more into a circus than a sport. But that is the way we want it. One can argue about the question whether this is good entertainment. At the moment, I would have liked to talk to my team. Like this, we simply go home with zero points.”
Defending champion Marco Wittmann also had a rather disappointing ay: “We all have opted for the wrong strategy. At the end of the day, at least I still scored two points, but it could have been more.” The BMW driver dropped back from second on the grid to ninth at the finish.
Because Auer’s pit stop lasted longer than planned, Paul Di Resta temporarily took the lead on lap 26 after his stop. One lap before the end, Auer moved past his fellow Mercedes-AMG driver again. “A clean sweep of the top four is a fantastic result for our entire team. That is a boost for everyone of us. The car was super in the wet,” Di Resta said after his 30th DTM podium finish.
Source : dtm.com
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