Audi’s Jamie Green says that he “paid the price” for staying out on the option tyres one lap too long in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters race at the Red Bull Ring, with the Brit finishing in eighth as a result.
Green started the sixth race of the season from sixth on the grid and was part of an eight-car battle for the lead. After making his mandatory pit-stop on lap 23 Green emerged in the lead of the race, only for it to transpire that he had stayed out on the beneficial option tyres one lap too long.
DTM regulations stipulate that a driver may not use the option tyres for more than half the race distance, and Green was deemed to have violated this regulation.
“It was very disappointing to have received a drive-through penalty, which costs about 16 seconds here,” explained Green, who finished 14.456 seconds from eventual winner Marco Wittmann. “That threw me out of the battle for a top position.
“I still finished in eighth place in the end; it’s good to have still scored points. I battled for victory, ran on option tires one lap too many – I paid the price for it.”
Audi Sport Team Rosberg Team Principal Arno Zensen admits that it was a communication error which caused Green to stay out one lap too long.
“Jamie drove a good race,” said Zensen. “Shortly before the pit stop, there were some communications problems; that’s why we pitted a lap too late. That’s what he received a drive-through penalty for – that was a real shame.”
Audi’s Head of DTM Dieter Gass admits that more could have been possible, especially as Green was in the thick of the lead battle. Instead Audi drivers finished fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth and it has now been ten races since the last victory for the marque.
“At first glance, the result looks like damage containment,” admitted Gass. “If, following the qualifying result, anybody had told us yesterday that we’d have four Audi cars in the points today we’d have been relatively pleased.
“In Jamie Green’s case, a lot more would definitely have been possible. There was a communications problem between him and his team and he drove one lap too many on option tires. As a result, Jamie deprived himself of the chance to battle for the podium. He definitely had the potential to do so.”