Photo: DTM Media

Lucas Auer happy with being top scorer in his BMW debut

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BMW Motorsport has much to improve following the first round of the 2020 DTM season at Spa-Francorchamps, but Lucas Auer, one of the Bavarian manufacturer’s new recruits, made the most of his comeback to the series to finish the weekend as BMW’s top scorer.

Auer has had to get used to new regulations, a new car, as well as working with a new team, important differences from his prior time in the series with Mercedes AMG.

Still, the Team RMR driver, with a seventh place on Saturday’s race, and an eighth finish on Sunday’s, completed the first round of the season as the highest-scoring driver for BMW, seventh in the drivers’ championship with ten points.

“In general, when we speak about my performance this weekend, I’m happy,” Auer told TouringCarTimes. “I think it was consistent and the race pace was good. I had a few problems during qualifying with the DRS closing, but, overall, I also think it was ok.”

The DRS system in the DTM closes when the vehicle reaches 2.5 Gs as a safety measure. For Spa-Francorchamps, this umbral was lowered to 1.5 Gs due to the high-speed corners, with Auer suffering the consequences during his flying lap.

“It was outside Turn 15 (Stavelot) that I realised it was closed and it stayed like that during the whole straight, so it was very difficult,” explained the Austrian.

BMW lacked general performance compared to Audi at the season opener, but Auer is positive that good results are still to come for them.

“I’m optimistic for the future because I think there is still more for me to discover in the car,” said the team RMR driver. “With more days and more races, I think we can get more out of the package. In general, from my side, I’m happy and believe I have the potential.”

Next for the DTM is the Lausitzring races, the track where Auer scored his first victory in the series and where he has been able to claim good results.

“Lausitzring is probably one of the good tracks on the calendar for me, so yes, there is something special there,” added Auer. “I don’t want to promise anything, but it is normally a very good track for me.”