DTM Budapest: Audi driver Rockenfeller fourth
- Rain shower and accidents turn racing action on its head at Budapest
- Pit stop on lap one decisive in Sunday’s race
The DTM remains unpredictable: In Sunday’s turbulent race at the Hungaroring, a rain shower turned the racing action completely on its head. In the end, the drivers who in rather unpromising positions had made their mandatory pit stops right at the beginning of the race were running in front.
One of the winners of the DTM gamble at Budapest was Mike Rockenfeller from Audi Sport Team Phoenix. After having started the race from grid position 16, “Rocky” changed tires right on lap one. After seven laps, a heavy rain shower caused three serious accidents in the pit lane and a longer interruption of the race that disadvantaged all the drivers who had not pitted yet or happened to be in the pit lane at the time the race was stopped. Except for Rockenfeller, this included all other five Audi drivers.
“This was a crazy race,” said the 2013 DTM Champion, who placed fourth after the restart. “That I nearly made it onto the podium is completely secondary today. The pictures of the accidents in the pit lane looked horrible. The last thing we want is for someone to get injured. I hope the victims weren’t hurt as badly as things looked at the first moment. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for them!”
“The most important thing is that, fortunately, it looks like the consequences of the accidents in the pit lane weren’t as grave as had to be feared initially,” said Head of Audi Motorsport Dieter Gass. “The situation was difficult for all drivers because they didn’t know what conditions to expect in the pit lane. Due to the red flag, everyone who hadn’t pitted yet was no longer in contention. In the end, Mike Rockenfeller still scored a fourth place. That’s not bad but, after yesterday, we had higher expectations.”
The DTM will continue on June 23 and 24 at the Norisring with Audi’s home round.