Audi disappointed at ‘minimal’ title options
Audi Sport arrived at the Nürburgring for the eighth round of the 2015 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters season hoping that the shedding of performance weights would give them the performance to be ahead again. Miguel Molina scored a fantastic victory for Team Abt Sportsline on Sunday, but Mattias Ekström struggled again, scoring only one point and losing significant ground in the championship.
Mattias Ekström was having a thrilling fight with Pascal Wehrlein for the drivers’ title. The Swede, however, has only scored one point in the last four races, going from being six points ahead to 38 behind heading into the final race meeting of the season.
Audi tripped on Saturday, with many cars being involved in serious incidents from the beginning of the race, and only Edoardo Mortara and Mattias Ekström scoring points. Team Abt Sportsline’s Miguel Molina delivered them a victory on Sunday, but was the only RS 5 DTM to score points.
Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich, Head of Audi Motorsport, lamented that the strength shown by the RS 5 DTM hasn’t allowed them to arrive to the season finale with higher options for the title, vowing to keep fighting until the end.
“Audi has won every other DTM race so far this season, celebrating as many victories as BMW and Mercedes-Benz combined. Obviously, it’s disappointing to see that our chances in the Championship before the finale at Hockenheim are now only minimal. But two of our drivers can still win the title and at Hockenheim we’re going to battle up to the very end.”
Dieter Gass, Head of DTM at Audi, praised Miguel Molina, pinning the poor results on bad qualifying performance: “Our highlight of the weekend was the superb performance by Miguel (Molina) on Sunday: pole position, fastest race lap and a commanding victory with a 7.5-second lead. His first victory was more than overdue. He repeatedly indicated his potential and even clinched the top spot on the grid five times, but then was unfortunate in the races again and again. Finally, that wasn’t the case here. Edo’s second place on Saturday was top as well, especially as he had started from fifth place on the grid. With a view towards the championship, the way the weekend went was obviously anything but optimal. Especially in qualifying, our performance was not as solid as we’d have needed it to be here.”
Audi Sport heads to Hockenheim as third and last in the manufacturers’ table, 82 points behind BMW Motorsport.
