Photo: DTM Media

René Rast unhappy despite retaking the lead of the championship

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Audi Sport driver René Rast recovered the championship lead after finishing ninth today at Zandvoort. Despite a positive overall result, the German was in a sombre mood and unhappy about the race development.

Rast qualified fifth and fastest among the Audis. At the start, the Team Rosberg driver maintained his position behind BMW’s Augusto Farfus, who was slower than his team-mates, losing touch with the leaders. Additionally, Rast was on a different strategy to fellow Audi drivers Mattias Ekström, Mike Rockenfeller and Jamie Green, pitting on lap 18, a decision that caused him to be undercut by several drivers, and would only manage to finish in ninth position.

“Today wasn’t great,” Rast told TouringCarTimes. “The race could have been better. I feel that, strategy wise, we could have done better.

Rast now leads the championship with 114 points, one ahead of Ekström, who didn’t score any points after a mistake early in the race on cold tyres. Mercedes’ Lucas Auer is still third with 99, followed by BMW’s Timo Glock a point behind and Green one more with 97.

Still, Rast wasn’t smiling: “I’m positive about leading the championship, but the guys behind are closing up, so things are getting tough, because the BMWs are getting faster. Tomorrow will be even more difficult, as they are having five kilos out and we are having five kilos in. We will see.”

Audi Sport Team Rosberg leads the teams’ championship with 211 points, 57 ahead of BMW Team RBM.

Audi Sport is also the manufacturers’ points leader with 446 points, 66 ahead of BMW Motorsport, who today overtook Mercedes AMG for second place. The Stuttgart-based marque lies third on 351 points.