DTM Budapest 2018
Nico Müller

With a podium place for Nico Müller and a total of six results in the points Audi is leaving Budapest on the third race weekend of the 2018 DTM. The quotes.

Dieter Gass (Head of Audi Motorsport)
“This weekend we saw once again how unpredictable the DTM is. Nico’s (Müller) podium on Saturday and a total of five cars in the points were a good performance. In the race on Sunday we were fast as well, but the Red Flag, unfortunately, came at exactly the wrong time for us. We made progress at Budapest and I’m hoping for our form curve to continue pointing upwards in the next races too.”

Nico Müller (Castrol EDGE Audi RS 5 DTM #51) position 3 / position 15
“With my podium finish and the front row on Saturday I’m basically taking a lot of positives home from Hungary. We made some small steps ahead, but still have a lot of work to do. Without the incidents in Sunday’s race I’d have probably finished in the points again.”

Mike Rockenfeller (Schaeffler Audi RS 5 DTM #99) position 11 / position 4
“For me, personally, a pretty sobering weekend. In race one, with a little luck, I might have still placed ninth. Race two was marked by the accidents in the pit lane. I wish everyone involved only the best. In terms of racing, it’s hard to assess. Fourth position is okay and in the end, I even came close to clinching the possible podium.”

René Rast (Audi Sport RS 5 DTM #33) position 4 / position 13
“I was actually quite happy with my pace throughout the weekend. Unfortunately, the results don’t reflect that. Fourth place on Saturday was still okay, but Sunday was a race to completely forget. I practically pitted exactly at the time when the race was stopped by the Red Flag.”

Robin Frijns (Aral Ultimate Audi RS 5 DTM #4) position 7 / position 11
“Unfortunately, we didn’t extract the maximum from the weekend. On Saturday, after a disappointing qualifying, I managed a positive race. Then, on Sunday, the picture was reversed: a relatively good qualifying followed by a weather gamble. The rain and the Red Flag ruined our race strategy.”

Loïc Duval (Audi Sport RS 5 DTM #28) position 8 / position 12
“On Saturday, I started from eleventh on the grid and, thanks to some overtaking maneuvers, battled my way forward to finish in eighth position – not a bad result. But, theoretically, even more than that is possible. On Sunday, on a dry track, I managed a good start. Then, with the rain and the interruption, my race was ruined. I had to start from the far end of the field.”

Jamie Green (Hoffmann Group Audi RS 5 DTM #53) position 9 / position 17
“From my perspective, we’ve been developing in the right direction since the Lausitzring event. The car felt better. Our strategy in the first race with the early stop didn’t really pay off in spite of ninth position. In Sunday’s race we were simply unfortunate. The interruption of the race muddled up the whole outcome – unfortunately, to our disadvantage.”

Thomas Biermaier (Team Director Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline)
“Nico’s (Müller) somewhat unexpected podium on Saturday was obviously our highlight of the weekend and great for the whole team. Nico was extremely strong here, but Robin (Frijns) showed another good performance as well. I was particularly pleased to see both of our cars being constantly fast throughout the weekend. This shows that we’re continuously improving our understanding of the car and headed in the right direction.”

Ernst Moser (Team Director Audi Sport Team Phoenix)
“That we were clearly more competitive than we still were at the Lausitzring is no doubt a positive. Unfortunately, in the turbulent race on Sunday, most of the Audi cars dropped to the rear of the field. The only one to still score a good result was Mike (Rockenfeller). He even nearly achieved a podium finish. That we managed the quickest pit stops was another highlight for our team.”

Arno Zensen (Team Director Audi Sport Team Rosberg)
“A pretty difficult weekend on the whole. Actually, we were still quite happy with René’s (Rast) fourth position on Saturday. In Sunday’s qualifying, René showed a tremendous performance. I was surprised that it was only enough for grid position six. The race then was obviously total chaos. In the end, we can all be happy that nothing worse happened. Now let’s just close the books and concentrate on the Norisring.”