Audi Sport mildly satisfied with scoring points in Zandvoort
Audi Sport had a tough day at Circuit Park Zandvoort. The Ingolstadt manufacturer, carrying heavy performance weights, was half a second off the pace and struggled to take two cars into the points. Still, Audi maintain their lead in the standings.
Jamie Green was the top RS 5 DTM in qualifying in sixth position. On the race, however, the Briton went off track, having to retire as a result. Mattias Ekström didn’t fare batter, starting from 19th place, being able to recover to 13th, but still outside the points.
There were only two Audi drivers in the points, with Team Phoenix’ Mike Rockenfeller in eighth place, and Team Rosberg’s Nico Müller in ninth, who finished the race right after the domineering BMWs, who took the first seven positions in the classification.
Dieter Gass, Head of DTM for the four-ring manufacturer, acknowledged their difficulties in Zandvoort, not expecting the situation to improve tomorrow: “We already saw in qualifying that our calculations were right and that due to the performance weights we’re losing about half a second per lap to the lighter cars. But saying that it was just the weight would be too easy. Our drivers weren’t happy with the handling of their cars in the race either. We’re going to analyze this and try to do better tomorrow. However, after what we experienced today, we can expect it to be another stony road.”
Audi still managed to further their gap over Mercedes in the Manufacturers’ standings, with 289 points in their account, 53 more than their immediate rival.
The DTM on track action resumes tomorrow at 9:45 CEST (GMT +2), with the 15-minute morning warm up.
