Two-time champion Rene Rast claimed his second victory of the 2020 season in mixed weather conditions. Rivals Nico Mueller and Robin Frijns join him on the podium. Timo Glock finishes as best of the BMW drivers – a great recovery following an incident in qualifying.
The race started in pretty wet conditions, with all drivers on wet weather tyres. Where polesitter Mueller struggled with his start a week ago, he got off the line well today, keeping the lead. He was followed by his Abt Sportsline teammate Robin Frijns. In contrast, Rast couldn’t capitalise on his front row start and dropped back to fourth, allowing BMW’s Philipp Eng to move up to third. However, Rast was able to catch Eng again a few corners later, getting his third place back. Eng was also under pressure from Wittman behind him. Wittmann eventually passed the Austrian at then end of the first lap.
Initially, it seemed Frijns was pressuring Mueller for the lead but he soon managed to create a comfortable gap to his teammate of four seconds. Rast, who was third at that time, dropped to fourth after a little trip through the gravel at Turn 10 of lap six, where he lost around seven seconds. He did regain his third position though, a few laps later, passing BMW’s Marco Wittmann.
WRT’s Fabio Scherer was the first driver to make his mandatory pitstop on lap nine. Making the switch to slicks, he immediately appeared faster than the rest of the field. Eng and Wittmann were the first of the front-runners to dive into the pits for new tyres, followed by Frijns and Rast one lap later. Mueller waited for one more lap, losing time to the others. When he rejoined the track on cold tyres, there was a change in the lead as both Frijns and Eng passed the Swiss driver. One lap later, on lap 16, he also lost position to Wittmann and rival Rast, who overtook him with the use of DRS.
While Frijns was still leading the race, Wittmann overtook Eng for second place. Rast and Mueller were pushing and chasing the competitors. On lap 20, Rast passed Eng for third and three laps later he also passed Wittmann, taking over second place. In the meantime, Mueller was closing in as well, making the move on Eng for fourth place going into Turn 1 on lap 22 of the race. Two laps later, the championship leader was close enough to Wittmann and passed him on the pit straight.
On lap 26 of the race, Rast was finally close enough to race leader Frijns. The pair went side-by-side through Turn 1, Rast then moved to the inside line for Turn 2 and took over the lead one lap later. Three laps before the end of the race, Mueller also made the move on Frijns and took over second place. Unlike last weekend’s close finish, this time Mueller crossed the finish line two seconds behind Rast. Frijns completed the podium in third.
Image Credit: DTM Media
BMW’s Timo Glock finished the race in fourth. An impressive and strong comeback after his little incident in qualifying, causing him to start 14th. He was best of the BMW’s today, with strong pace towards the end of the race. Wittmann eventually dropped to fifth, six tenths ahead of Audi’s Mike Rockenfeller. The Audi Team Phoenix driver struggled a bit at the start, but then regained positions after his pitstop.
His teammate Loic Duval crossed the line one second behind in sixth. He was followed by a BMW duo – Eng and Sheldon van der Linde. Completing the top ten was Jamie Green, who struggled and qualified only 13th. The Briton made up quite a few places in the opening laps, moving up to eighth. In the end, he took the final championship point.
Ferdinand Habsburg finished 11th after starting from 15th on the grid following a five-place grid drop. WRT’s rookie Harrison Newey received the same penalty. He finished 15th. Other rookies Fabio Scherer and ex-F1 driver Robert Kubica finished 13th and 16th.
The next session – qualifying – will start tomorrow morning at 10.45 local time (09.45 UK time).
