Mixed feelings at Audi after Jamie Green’s penalty

Audi occupied positions fifth to eighth while rivals BMW dominated at Spielberg. The hot topic for the Four-Rings manufacturer was Jamie Green, who had been in contention for a race win, penalised with a drive-through penalty for having covered more than half the distance of the race on option tyres, just one lap too many.

Audi Sport DTM Director Dieter Gass tries to see the bright side.

“At first glance, the result looks like damage containment. If, following the qualifying result, anybody had told us yesterday that we would have had four Audi cars in the points today we would have been relatively pleased,” said the German. Gass admitted that a communication problem between the pit wall and Audi Team Rosberg’s Jamie Green caused the penalty awarded to the Brit.

“In Jamie Green’s case, a lot more would definitely have been possible. There was a communications problem between him and his team, and he drove one lap too many on option tires. As a result, Jamie deprived himself of the chance to battle for the podium. He definitely had the potential to do so.”

Audi Team Phoenix’s Timo Scheider also looked happy after the race.

“Advancing from 14th place to fifth in the race is a great feeling for me and the squad. We had enough trouble and problems in the first five races. I hope that we’ll be able to turn this around now and to have luck on our side in the second half of the season.”

Audi Team Abt’s Adrien Tambay was probably the happiest Audi driver today, as he stormed through the field from 20th to a stunning sixth.

“This was one of my best races. I hadn’t expected much from grid position 20, not even by starting on option tyres. It was a tough race; my car was very good and really fast. We made no mistakes and overtook a few cars. Our pit stop was superb too. Many thanks from me to the whole team because we extracted a good result from a difficult situation.”

Title challenger Mattias Ekström looked very disappointed on the other hand, as the Swede feels there was not enough pace in the Audi RS 5 DTM.

“A few points are always good. But I’m definitely a bit disappointed. Our pace in the race today was insufficient – that’s the only thing that matters.”

Audi lost the lead in the manufacturers’ championship to BMW this weekend, and is now looking forward to the Nürburgring to make up for the tough Austrian weekend.