Two-time champion Rene Rast scored his first victory of the 2020 season after a thrilling battle with his stablemate Nico Mueller. BMW recovered after qualifying, finishing with four cars in the top ten.
Rast made a brilliant start from third on the grid. He and polesitter Frijns went side-by-side through Turn 1. The Dutchman pushed Rast onto the grass – for which he received a black and white flag, though Rast managed to keep second place. Then, two laps later he made the move on Frijns and took the lead. In the meantime, his biggest rival Mueller dropped to fourth from the front row, allowing Marco Wittmann to move up to second after a great start.
On lap seven of the race, Frijns attacked Rast for the lead. The pair went side-by-side through Turn 1, with Frijns forcing Rast off the track again. This situation led to Frijns being under investigation once more. As a result of this, stewards decided the pair had to exchange positions, allowing Rast to take back the lead. Wittmann, who was P3 at the time tried to take advantage of the situation, pressuring Frijns but the Audi driver successfully defended his position.
Frijns and Wittmann were the first of the leaders to complete their mandatory pitstop on lap 12 of the race. The pair returned to the track in front of Van der Linde who made an early stop on lap 8. Rast pitted one lap later to defend from the undercut of his competitors. He rejoined just ahead of Frijns and Wittmann. However, the Dutch Abt Sportsline driver overtook Rast on warmer tyres.
At this point, Frijns was the virtual leader as Nico Mueller and Mike Rockenfeller were the only ones who hadn’t made their stops yet. Mueller came in for fresh tyres on lap 20, with Rockenfeller following a lap later. At first, it seemed like Mueller had chosen the wrong strategy as he lost time by staying out that long. A good risk though, he would be on much fresher compared to his competitors’ towards the end.
On lap 25 of the race, Rast made the move for the lead once again and succeeded, demoting Frijns to second. Further behind, Mueller’s tyres got up to temperature and he was catching up with his competitors. He was slowly closing in on Wittmann in third and eventually passed the BMW driver on lap 34. The gap to Rast at that point was 5.8 seconds. After passing his Abt Sportsline teammate Frijns, who was struggling, the chase for Rast was on.
The Swiss driver rapidly brought the gap down to under one second. He attempted to pass Rast on the penultimate lap going into Turn 1 but failed to close in enough. On the final lap, Mueller had a great exit out of the final corner and the pair crossed the line side-by-side. Rast took his first victory of the season with a gap of only 0.089 seconds to his biggest rival Mueller.
‘The race was pretty entertaining,’ Rast said. ‘I had to drive through the grass in Turn 1, and also afterwards the fight with Robin [Frijns] was pretty hard. We pitted early to react to an undercut of Robin and Marco [Wittmann]. I knew that Nico [Mueller] would come in the end on fresher tyres. Our strategy was brave, and it got pretty tight, but fortunately, it worked for us.’
Mueller, who is leading the championship after four races says that there was more grip than he expected. ‘When Rene and Robin did some rally crossing in front of me, I briefly had a clear view. But I came onto the outside line in Turn 3. As a result, also Marco Wittmann passed me, and I dropped back to fourth. After that, it was hard work – but we managed the race pretty well’. He continued: ‘In the end, only a third of the car length was missing for victory. Yesterday the race seemed to be an eternity – today I prayed that it would last one lap longer.’
Image Credit: BMW Group Press
BMW’s Marco Wittmann completes the podium, finishing third after passing Frijns on the penultimate lap. The Munich-based manufacturer struggled at Spa, saying they could not match Audi’s pace. Wittmann once again confirmed this today, saying: ‘You have to say that the gap to the Audis is still very big in qualifying and the race. Third place is a decent enough result. However, our goal is to challenge for titles, and we are a long way off doing that at the moment. We must work hard to close that gap.’
Frijns is the man to beat on a one-lap pace, claiming three out of four pole positions this year. Though, he seems to struggle a bit during the race. He finished fourth behind Wittmann. Crossing the line in fifth is Audi Team Phoenix’s Mike Rockenfeller. He had the freshest tyres on the grid and was rapidly closing in on his competitors. BMW’s Timo Glock and Philipp Eng finished sixth and seventh. Completing the top ten are Loic Duval, Jonathan Aberdein and Ferdinand Habsburg. The latter started fourth but dropped back after briefly driving through the grass in the opening lap.
Rookies Fabio Scherer, Harrison Newey and Robert Kubica finished 11th to 13th. BMW’s Sheldon van der Linde, who scored his maiden DTM podium yesterday, dropped down the order with tyre issues towards the end of the race after pitting very early on the race. Rast’s teammate Jamie Green is the only driver who didn’t finish. The Briton suddenly slowed on lap 37 with mechanical issues, leading to retirement.
After two race weekends – four races – Mueller is leading the championship with 100 points. He’s followed by Rast, who scored 61 points so far. Next week, they are back here at the Lausitzring. Only this time on the slightly bigger Grand Prix version of the track.
