DTM Norisring: Audi pointless on Saturday
- Jamie Green best Audi driver in eleventh place in Saturday’s race
- Puncture costs Nico Müller possible points
Fantastic backdrop, thrilling battles at the front, but a disappointing result for the many Audi fans at trackside: in the first of two DTM races at the Norisring, Jamie Green in eleventh place was the best placed driver of an Audi RS 5 DTM on Saturday.
The sobering result for defending champion Audi was already evident during free practice and qualifying. With a gap of 224 thousandths of a second to pole position, Nico Müller was the fastest Audi driver in tenth place on the grid. The Swiss suffered a puncture in the race whilst battling hard with the BMW of previous championship leader Timo Glock. Müller dropped to the tail end of the field due to the extra pit stop.
His teammate Robin Frijns only changed tires on the penultimate lap and with this strategy was twelfth and second best Audi driver. Mike Rockenfeller crossed the finish line in 15th position. René Rast started the race from last on the grid following an accident in qualifying. The strategy for the reigning DTM Champion to stop immediately after the first lap was just as unrewarding as it was for Loïc Duval. The Frenchman lost valuable time due to a mistake during the pit stop.
“In such a race, to lose the best Audi because of a puncture is also not very helpful,” said Head of Audi Motorsport Dieter Gass. “But to be fair you have to say that a much better result wouldn’t have been possible for us today. With the season having gone the way it has so far we had to expect such a result at the Norisring.”
The second race at the Norisring starts on Sunday at 13:30 CEST and is broadcast live on SAT.1 from 13:00.