Photo: Audi Sport

Mike Rockenfeller satisfied with extra points after Wittmann’s exclusion

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Audi Sport driver Mike Rockenfeller scored an unexpected first victory of the season today at Zandvoort, initially crossing the line in second place but being elevated one spot after BMW driver Marco Wittmann’s exclusion.

“I had a nice and clean start and everyone ahead of me pitted early leaving me a clean track, so I thought ‘OK, this is going to be good’,” the German driver said to TouringCarTimes.

After changing tyres on lap 13, the Team Phoenix driver started lapping significantly faster than Wittmann, catching the BMW on lap 25. He then started a relentless attack on the reigning champion, but was unable to overtake: “I tried everything I had to attack, but he was able to hold off the pressure, he’s not a twice champion for nothing! I also tried to force him to overuse the tyres, but he managed to hold on.”

Wittmann was eventually excluded from the race results, with Rockefeller promoted to race winner, a result he would have preferred to achieve on the track: “When you start from position six, a second place is superb. Inheriting a victory retroactively is not the same as clinching one on the race track. But the rules are like this and, obviously, I don’t mind taking home the additional points.”

Rockenfeller also had words of recognition for his team-mate at Phoenix, Loïc Duval, who scored his first points stepping on the podium today: “Loïc was P3 on the line, so that was a great day for us. I’m looking forward to the next races because, as he gets stronger, it will be better for us. He did very well today.”

After today’s amended results, Mattias Ekström leads the championship table with 128 points, with fellow Audi driver René Rast second, 14 points adrift. Rockenfeller is third with 110 points, followed by Timo Glock with 104 and Maxime Martin with 102. Lucas Auer, sixth, is the best placed Mercedes driver with 99 points, same than Audi’s Jamie Green.

The Zandvoort weekend strengthened Audi’s lead in the manufacturers’ championship, with 518 points in their account, 113 over BMW Motorsport and 157 ahead of Mercedes AMG.