René Rast on his title chances: “Anything can happen”

The penultimate round of the season at the Red Bull Ring was a bittersweet one for René Rast. The German driver had a troubled race yesterday after finishing outside of the points, but was on the top of the podium today and is now the closest challenger to fellow Audi driver Mattias Ekström in the fight for the drivers’ championship.

Rast started the race from second on the grid and stayed behind team-mate at Rosberg Jamie Green, with the German driver having given up on “the rookie dream” after yesterday’s result.

The tide changed two minutes from the end of the race, when Green’s RS 5 DTM developed a gearbox issue and Rast took over the lead and went on to score his third victory of the season.

“First of all, I’m very sorry for Jamie, he was the quicker one today and he deserved to take the win,” said Rast after the race.

The Team Rosberg driver remained cautiously optimistic: “I took the points for the championship and now I’m 21 points behind Mattias again and, like today, anything can happen. One little mistake or one little failure in the car and the championship is wide-open again. I’m happy and I’m looking forward to a good fight at Hockenheim.”

Mike Rockenfeller and Nico Müller, who accompanied Rast on the podium making it a 1-2-3 result for Audi, also echoed Rast’s sentiment about Green’s mechanical failure.
“I think we are all very sorry for Jamie, he deserved the victory and this is the second time this has happened to him, but racing can be unfair sometimes,” said the 2013 champion

Müller added: “It’s good that we can be all here today, but the guy who deserved it the most, Jamie, isn’t here, I’m feeling for him because he was the strongest all weekend long.”

Going to the final round of the season at Hockenheim, Ekström leads on 172 points, 21 ahead of Rast and 35 ahead of Green. Rockenfeller also remains in contention, tied on points with BMW’s Marco Wittmann, both 38 adrift. Mercedes’ Lucas Auer still has a slim mathematical chance, 41 points behind, with 56 still in play.

In the manufacturers’ championship, Audi now lead with 697 points, 166 ahead of Mercedes AMG and 213 ahead of BMW Motorsport. With a maximum of 188 to be scored in Hockenheim, the Bavarian manufacturer is now out of contention for the crown, while Mercedes’ chances are very slim.