Photo: Audi MediaCenter

Audi boosted by ‘dream result’

Audi Sport had an almost perfect day at the Moscow Raceway today, dominating both qualifying and race to regain the lead in the Drivers’ and Manufacturers’ tables. With five cars on the top 10, the Ingolstadt squad was the strongest in the field.

The extra weight the RS 5 DTMs were carrying, compared to their competitors, wasn’t an impediment when it came to delivering results. Mike Rockenfeller and Mattias Ekström dominated the qualifying session, and the 2013 champion led all the way through the race, except when the pit stop window shook the pack.

Rockenfeller had a commanding victory, with an ample margin over Bruno Spengler: “It was tight only in the first turn. My start was a little worse than Bruno’s (Spengler) and I had to take a bit of a risk to keep him behind me. Fortunately, it worked out. My team gave me a perfect car today that was exactly the way I need it.”

Mattias Ekström had a more difficult task, as his car had to be repaired through the night. Additionally, the Swede had a 3-place drop on the grid, starting the race from fifth position. He managed to recover and climb to third place, after never losing touch with his predecessors during the race. The Swede commented: “I learned to be a little more patient yesterday and that paid off today. I have to thank my mechanics who gave me a perfect car again overnight and, to top it off, delivered the quickest pit stop as well.”

Jamie Green was fifth, being able to score points on both races this weekend. Edoardo Mortara was eighth, followed by Nico Müller.

In total, Audi had five cars in the top 10, which allows the Ingolstadt manufacturer to lead the standings again, with 28 points over Mercedes AMG. In the Drivers’ table, Mattias Ekström leads again, with 126 points, 6 more than Pascal Wehrlein. Edoardo Mortara is third with 110.

Dieter Gass, Head of Audi DTM, was very satisfied with the statement sent by his men after today’s result: “This was a dream result for Audi today. We saw two thrilling DTM races and an extremely strong Audi RS 5 DTM here in Russia. A big ‘thank you’ goes to the entire squad that had to work extremely hard to prepare the cars again following the two accidents yesterday. That was a really strong performance. But we won’t have a lot of time to celebrate because the season continues at Oschersleben in only two weeks from now. Following today’s victory, we’re going to have pretty heavy cars again there as well.”

The DTM will be back on track on two weeks’ time at Oschersleben.