Rast on the rise: third win in a row and the new points’ leader
A spectacular change in the plot in the battle for the DTM title: with his third consecutive win, Audi driver René Rast has moved up into the lead of the drivers’ standings for the first time this season.
The two-time DTM champion started the 15th race of the season at Zolder ten points down in the standings, but now, prior to the race on Sunday, he is even ten points ahead of Nico Müller. Having finished sixth, the Swiss again missed out on valuable championship points and lost the lead in the drivers’ standings for the first time since the season-opening race at Spa-Francorchamps. At Zolder, Robin Frijns was the only one Rast had to worry about, the Dutchman having put Rast under attack several times, eventually ending up second. Next to Rast, another successful driver at Zolder was Ferdinand Habsburg. With the privately entered Audi RS 5 DTM, the Austrian scored his maiden podium finish with third place, also the first-ever podium in the DTM for Belgian Audi customer team WRT.
Drama around Müller, a three-way battle for a maiden podium
For Rast, who had claimed his fifth pole position of the season in qualifying, everything ran like clockwork at the start already. The Audi driver skilfully defended the lead. Behind him, Habsburg, who had started second after a strong qualifying performance, defended his position from Frijns in third. The latter overtook the young Austrian at a later stage in the race. Nico Müller, who had started the second race weekend at Zolder still in the lead of the drivers’ standings, again had trouble in qualifying and only started from a disappointing eighth place. The race start didn’t go according to plan for the Swiss either. After contact with the Audi of Harrison Newey (GBR), Müller dropped back to 14th, but managed to gradually work his way back up. Further up, there was a three-way battle for the maiden podium finish in which, next to Ferdinand Habsburg, Jonathan Aberdein (RSA, BMW) and Fabio Scherer (SUI, Audi) were also fighting for their first-ever trophy for one of the first three positions. Although Aberdein, as the best-placed BMW driver, managed to make his way up into Habsburg’s slipstream, it wasn’t enough to secure a top 3 result.
After the 15th race of the season, Rast is the new leader in the drivers’ standings at 277 points. Müller drops to second place and is ten points down on the defending champion. Frijns remains close at 262 points. The thrilling battle for the 2020 DTM crown will be going into its next round on Sunday, 18 October (live on SAT.1 from 13.00 hrs and at grid.dtm.com).
Drama around Müller, a three-way battle for a maiden podium
For Rast, who had claimed his fifth pole position of the season in qualifying, everything ran like clockwork at the start already. The Audi driver skilfully defended the lead. Behind him, Habsburg, who had started second after a strong qualifying performance, defended his position from Frijns in third. The latter overtook the young Austrian at a later stage in the race. Nico Müller, who had started the second race weekend at Zolder still in the lead of the drivers’ standings, again had trouble in qualifying and only started from a disappointing eighth place. The race start didn’t go according to plan for the Swiss either. After contact with the Audi of Harrison Newey (GBR), Müller dropped back to 14th, but managed to gradually work his way back up. Further up, there was a three-way battle for the maiden podium finish in which, next to Ferdinand Habsburg, Jonathan Aberdein (RSA, BMW) and Fabio Scherer (SUI, Audi) were also fighting for their first-ever trophy for one of the first three positions. Although Aberdein, as the best-placed BMW driver, managed to make his way up into Habsburg’s slipstream, it wasn’t enough to secure a top 3 result.
After the 15th race of the season, Rast is the new leader in the drivers’ standings at 277 points. Müller drops to second place and is ten points down on the defending champion. Frijns remains close at 262 points. The thrilling battle for the 2020 DTM crown will be going into its next round on Sunday, 18 October (live on SAT.1 from 13.00 hrs and at grid.dtm.com).
