René Rast ecstatic with first DTM points result

Audi Sport driver René Rast had a recovering race at Hockenheim today to finish in sixth position, scoring his first points in the DTM in his first ‘proper’ day with the team.

The German driver had competed in Zandvoort after being called at the last minute to replace injured Adrien Tambay. Heading to a important finale for Audi at Hockenheim, Rast used the tyre tests at the Hungaroring to prepare himself and get more accustomed to the RS 5 DTM.

“I spent some days with the team, and had a proper seat for myself,” Rast told TouringCarTimes. “We had a lot of meetings about how to prepare the car, strategies and how everything works. This surely helped. Everything in the DTM is about the details and, if you know them, everything is so much easier. So yes, in that sense, today was a lot easier than in Zandvoort.”

Audi is fighting for all three titles and counting on the team effort to achieve the necessary results. Despite this, Rast had no pressure to score this weekend: “My mission today was to do a good job, I had no pressure nobody told me that I had to score any points. The result was a nice extra.”

Rast went from 11th on the grid to sixth at the chequered flag, after a solid race: “It’s a very nice result in my first proper race. If they had said to me before that I was going to be sixth, I would have signed that result straight away. In such a tight championship is not easy to jump in and perform straight away, so yes, a very good result.”

Audi has shown a strong pace this weekend so far. Asked whether he could repeat the result tomorrow, Rast said: “The car felt good all day long. For sure, we can still improve the car a little bit and I can drive a bit better, so I think there is still room to have a better result tomorrow. Another points finish would be awesome.”