René Rast wins second race at Lausitzring as Audi wraps up manufacturers’ title
René Rast narrowly increased his DTM championship lead by winning Sunday’s race at the Lausitzring, while Audi was able to wrap up the manufacturers’ title with four races left to run.
Rast bounced back after a DNF in Race 1 on Saturday, that saw him scoring no points while main title rival Nico Müller bagged 25 to close the gap at the top of the standings.
Audi Sport Team Rosberg’s Rast was able to secure the maximum 25 points by winning Sunday’s race but wasn’t able to extend his advantage too much in the championship, with Müller a close second at the line.
It means Rast now has a 20-point lead heading into the next two races at the Nürburgring, running on 234 points compared to Müller’s 214. Third-placed Marco Wittmann is on 167, meanwhile.
Audi, meanwhile, locked up the manufacturers’ standings with its top-five sweep, and now has a total of 858 points compared to 463 for BMW, enough to place it out of reach in the remaining four races.
Müller had an impressive drive from the midfield to finish 5.1 seconds down on Rast courtesy of a quick early pit stop and a determined drive in warm conditions at the east German circuit.
The Swiss driver started from third on the grid but a poor start soon saw him drop back to tenth, a position he did little to improve upon until pitting on lap eight.
Mike Rockenfeller completed the podium with his Audi Sport Team Phoenix car, putting one car from each of the three factory Audi teams on the podium.
Jamie Green made a late-race pass on Robin Frijns to take fourth position after starting from pole, with Frijns forced to settle for fifth.
Wittmann was again the best-placed BMW driver, finishing sixth in his Team RMG-run BMW M4 DTM, ahead of Jonathan Aberdein in one of the customer Audi Sport Team WRT cars.
Elsewhere in the BMW contingent, Philipp Eng made up several positions early on after being forced to start from pit lane for breaking parc ferme rules after qualifying.
He made his way up to eleventh from 18th on the opening lap, and eventually finished tenth, behind Loïc Duval and Pietro Fittipaldi.
R-Motorsport had another race to forget with only one of its drivers, Daniel Juncadella, finishing, with a twelfth place result.
Paul Di Resta retired with a loss of power after a clash with Bruno Spengler, which will be reviewed after the race. Ferdinand Habsburg retired with suspected damage after contact with Timo Glock, while Jake Dennis had a drop in power on the second lap.
