Audi’s dominant streak has finally been broken. After a thrilling finish, Lucas Auer claims his first victory for BMW, ahead of Timo Glock and Robin Frijns.
For the fourth time this season, Robin Frijns headed up the grid for Audi. After a good start, Frijns kept hold of his lead while Rene Rast claimed second place from Nico Mueller. BMW Team RBM’s Sheldon van der Linde stalled from fourth place on the grid. All of the cars behind managed to avoid him, but the South African dropped back to 14th.
On lap four, Rast made the move on Frijns going into Turn 1, taking the race lead. Three laps later Frijns repaid the favour, using DRS into Turn 1. In the meantime, behind the leading duo, drivers were catching up. Mueller was third, followed closely by Jamie Green, Timo Glock and Marco Wittmann.
While the track action was excellent, the outcome of today’s race was decided by pitstop strategy. BMW’s Sheldon van der Linde was the first to head into the pits for fresh tyres on lap eight. Mike Rockenfeller, who started 14th after a difficult qualifying followed him a lap later. Of the leading group, Glock was the first to visit the pits, together with Loic Duval and Lucas Auer on lap 10. Green made his mandatory stop on lap 11.
Drivers that had pitted already, seemed significantly faster compared to the guys that had not made their pitstops yet. Especially Green, who was two seconds faster than the leading four drivers. At that point, the Briton was the virtual leader. Of the real leader pack, Rast and Wittmann were the next ones to get fresh tyres on lap 17. Mueller headed in the next lap, followed by Frijns another lap later.
Post pitstops, Mueller was ahead of Rast. However, his cold tyres were his downfall as the Swiss driver got overtaken again by Rast on the back straight. The same happened to Frijns, who rejoined behind the duo. After the entire field completed their mandatory stops, Green was leading from Glock and Auer. Team Phoenix’s Duval was fourth, followed by Rast, Mueller and Frijns.
Green’s tyres started to slowly drop off towards the end of the race. Therefore, on lap 24, both Glock and Auer passed the Briton for the lead, which dropped him to third. On the following lap, it was Auer who passed his fellow BMW driver for the lead. In the meantime, Green got pressure from Duval behind. He managed to fend off Duval’s attack, causing the Phoenix driver to run wide. He then lost his position to Rast and Mueller.
The top nine remained close together in the final seven laps of the race, with a gap of around five seconds. Glock made a move on Auer on lap 27, using his DRS at Turn 1. He successfully got back the lead into the closing phase of the race. Auer remained glued to the back of Glock. On the final lap, he made a surprise move going into Turn 1 to outbreak the German. Auer claimed his first victory since 2018 and his first for BMW. Glock had to settle for second. Frijns successfully passed Mueller on lap 27. Then, on the final lap op the race he also managed to get past Rast and Green, finishing third once again.
‘I am still lost for words,’ said Auer after the race. ‘I think that was the most intense race I have ever experienced in the DTM, as an error could have been fatal. The strategy and pit stop were perfect and I could manage the tyres well. The car was also spot-on. And putting it all together on the final lap – it doesn’t get any better than that.’
Image Credit: DTM Media
Green eventually finished fourth. ‘I stopped pretty early and was able to build a good gap afterwards,’ Green commented. ‘As a leader, you are not allowed to use push-to-pass or DRS. That’s why Timo Glock and Lucas Auer caught me and finally passed me. Afterwards, I was able to keep up well with the two BMWs, but I didn’t want to try a crazy move in the end. While trying to overtake Timo Glock, I came out of the last corner badly and Robin caught me. A pity, because a podium would have been great today.’
Behind, Mueller and Rast battled it out for fifth. Just like the race last Sunday, they crossed the line side by side. Mueller had the advantage today with a tiny margin of 0.009 seconds. BMW’s Jonathan Aberdein finished seventh, ahead of Duval and Wittmann. Van der Linde completed the top ten almost ten seconds behind Auer – a great recovery after stalling at the grid.
Unfortunately, after a challenging qualifying for Rockenfeller, he struggled in the race as well. After stopping early on in the race, he finished just outside the points in 11th place. Harrison Newey was best of the rookies in 13th place, followed by WRT’s Habsburg, Scherer and ART’s Robert Kubica in 14th, 15th and 16th.
The next two races will take place at TT Circuit Assen, the Netherlands from 4-6 September. Mueller is still leading the championship with 133 points, followed by Rast (97) and Frijns (92). Glock is the new fourth with 52 points.
