Audi hopes for better luck tomorrow in Moscow
Audi Sport arrived in Moscow as clear favourites, despite fielding the heaviest cars this weekend for the sixth round of the 2015 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters season. But, two heavy collisions and a fourth position as a best finish after, the Ingolstadt squad looks to turn their fortunes around tomorrow.
The day hadn’t started badly, with Jamie Green qualifying in third place on the grid. The then standings leader Mattias Ekström was sixth, and Audi had placed four cars in the top ten.
The race, however, was a different matter. Already at the first corner, Team Abt Sportsline’s Miguel Molina got tagged by several cars, spinning and being hit by Christian Vietoris.
Later in the race, his team-mate Mattias Ekström tried to overtake Timo Glock, colliding and with both cars into the tyre barriers. “Timo was starting to have problems and getting slower,” said Ekström. “I was already running side by side with him and didn’t expect him not to leave me any room. But apparently the going is now getting tougher in this stage of the championship.” The incident is still being investigated by the Stewards.
Ekström’s race without points, together with Pascal Wehrlein’s strong win, has dropped the Swede to the second place in the standings, eight points behind the young German.
The Team Abt Sportsline mechanics now face a long night to try to repair and get both cars ready for tomorrow.
Team Phoenix’ Jamie Green was the best man for Audi. After five races without scoring, the Briton had a strong performance, being third for most of the race and close to the leaders. He was overtaken though by BMW’s Bruno Spengler at the last corner, finishing in fourth position.
Edoardo Mortara in sixth place, as well as Nico Müller in ninth and Mike Rockenfeller in tenth, were the other RS 5 DTMs in the points. Rookie Antonio Giovinazzi drove a trouble-free race for Team Phoenix, finishing in 19th place.
Dieter Gass, Head of DTM for Audi Sport, returning to his position after a sickness related absence in Spielberg, remained philosophical and highlighted the safety standards in the DTM: “The main thing is that both drivers are okay. The safety concept of the DTM proved its viability once more. Obviously, today’s results were disappointing for us on the whole because our cars were very fast in spite of the high performance weights. On the other hand, this gives rise to hope for race two tomorrow. We’ve seen how quickly the tide can turn in the DTM on several occasions this year.”
DTM on track action resumes tomorrow with the morning warm up at 9:10 CEST (GMT + 2).
