Audi Sport Team Rosberg’s René Rast lead from lights-to-flag in DTM’s Sunday race at Brands Hatch, heading what was an Audi 1-2-3-4.
It was not an easy run for the 2017 series champion, after first being passed by Audi Sport Team Phoenix’s Loïc Duval off the line, and then as Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline’s Nico Müller sought to challenge for the victory in the final laps.
“Today felt more difficult than yesterday,” explained the championship leader, “I think the key was starting from pole.
“The start wasn’t the best, I got passed by Loïc, but in the end we had the perfect strategy, and the perfect pitstop.”
Rast revealed that prior to the race start, his race was in question as a damage left his team forced to swap his tyres from the Hankook’s that helped claim pole, to a less favourable set.
“We had a small problem with a damaged tyre after qualifying, and so we couldn’t use the qualifying set which was the best set we had.
“Still I am very happy with the result today.
“I still have bad memories of Assen, where the tyres died at the end. I tried to be very conservative with the tyres.”
In the Sunday qualifying session, Audi locked out the top eight spaces on the grid, leading many to wonder why the RS5 Turbo was so dominant. Rast himself admitted he was perplexed with the change in form.
“It was surprising for us. We were strong in the Audi’s and no one can really explain it.
“It’s up and down for everyone in the DTM, the key is to maximise what you have and we did that today.”