René Rast completes Zolder clean sweep as Robin Frijns crashes out
Reigning DTM champion René Rast made it two wins out of two in the second race of the Zolder weekend, as Robin Frijns crashed while exiting the pits.
Rast leapt off the line after qualifying third on the grid to lead into the first corner, and duly held his nerve following a mid-race safety car period to claim his fourth win of the season.
Points leader Nico Müller (Abt Sportsline Audi) finished ninth, which leaves the Swiss driver just 10 points ahead of Rast, who leapfrogged Frijns into second in the standings.
Rast nearly didn’t make the start after an engine bay fire as he arrived on the grid caused a pre-race scare.
Off the line, pole-sitter Glock got a poor start and was immediately swamped by Rast, who made a sensational start from third on the grid.
Ferdinand Habsburg also got a great getaway and made it past Glock for second before Turn 1, but Glock tagged the back of the WRT Audi, sending both into the gravel trap.
That allowed Mike Rockenfeller up into second place as Rast held the advantage for the opening stint.
Frijns made it through the first corner melee to run fourth early on, ahead of chief title rival – and points leader – Müller.
The Dutchman bolted onto the back of Team RBM’s Sheldon van der Linde and made a late divebomb on the BMW driver under braking for the final corner to claim third place.
Frijns held that place until his mandatory pit-stop on lap 12, which ultimately caused his retirement.
Exiting the pits, the Audi understeered on the damp pit exit and slammed straight into the armco barrier, damaging the front-right hand side of his car and forcing him out of the race.
Explaining the incident afterwards, Frijns said: “We had a brand new set of tyres on and we put the softs on, I drove out and was really surprised to have no grip at all.”
That brought out the safety car, which coincided with Marco Wittmann’s planned mandatory pit-stop. The RBM BMW driver led the group who had already stopped at the restart but needed to stop again.
The overall leader was Müller, who tried to pull a big enough margin at the front before his own mandatory stop, after which he rejoined in ninth, behind Wittmann.
Rast resumed his lead after Müller’s stop, although he was nearly taken out by Rosberg team-mate Jamie Green as the Brit came back onto the circuit following his second stop.
That was the only drama as Rast came home 5.4s ahead of Rockenfeller, with BMW’s Lucas Auer claiming an impressive podium in third.41 laps
Recovering from his opening lap contact, Glock came home fourth, with Fabio Scherer claimed his first DTM points in fifth, just ahead of WRT’s Harrison Newey.
Habsburg clung on to finish seventh ahead of a charging Wittmann, while Müller had to make do with ninth.
Van der Linde completed the top ten with his RBM BMW.
The DTM will remain at Zolder, with the next race being held at the Belgian circuit next weekend.
