Audi Sport vows to keep fighting after tough day
Audi Sport saw today a halt to their triumphant march through this year’s Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters Season. The Ingolstadt manufacturer only managed to get one car in the points, and far from the podium positions, at today’s race at Motorsport Arena in Oschersleben.
The performance weights for the seventh round of the season have really hit Audi. Being 30 kilos heavier than the BMWs, engineers at Ingolstadt estimated their loss in 0.6 seconds per lap, enough to struggle to get into the top 10.
Truth be told, Audi’s prospects got severely compromised at the start, where a multi-car collision left Mike Rockenfeller, Edoardo Mortara, Jamie Green and Nico Müller with damages that, in due course, would force them to retire from the race.
Mattias Ekström didn’t have a good day either. The Swede spun off track during the shortened free practice session, which was quickly followed by the qualifying, where Ecky had gear shifting troubles. He had to start from the last row of the grid and, despite recovering to 14th position, it just wasn’t enough. Pascal Wehrlein scoring points, despite his own troubles, means that Ekström has now lost the lead in the Drivers’ standings.
The bright side for Audi came through Miguel Molina. The Spaniard was the fastest man for the four-ring manufacturer throughout free practice, and also the highest qualifier. However, Molina had an off track excursion right at the end of the qualifying session, with the Team Abt Sportsline mechanics having to work hard and fast to repair his RS 5 DTM in time for the race.
Molina managed to stay out of trouble and finish in ninth position, scoring two valuable points for Audi in the Manufacturers’ table: “More was simply not possible today. Still, the two points are a nice reward for my mechanics who managed to repair my car in time for the race following my accident in qualifying. I’d like to thank them for that!”
Dieter Gass, Head of DTM for Audi Sport, remained philosophical about today’s outcome, already looking to Nürburgring: “We knew that due to the performance weights we’d be having a very tough time here. When you start from midfield, you’re obviously in a very vulnerable position, especially here at Oschersleben. We could see that again today. The only consolation is that we’re reducing weight. But this won’t have an effect until the next race weekend at the Nürburgring.”
The Ingolstadt squad now leads with 418 points, only nine more than Mercedes. The DTM action resumes tomorrow at 9:00 CEST (GMT + 2) for the warm up session.
