Lucas Auer: “Maybe we could have won race two”

Mercedes-AMG driver Lucas Auer was dismayed after having to retire from the second race at the Nürburgring, with the Austria suffering a collision from BMW’s Timo Glock which ruined his chances.

Auer started from fifth on the grid and passed all the cars ahead of him, taking Turn 1 side-by-side with Audi’s René Rast to then sit in second place.

“I had a mega start – I nearly went for the lead, but I couldn’t,” said Auer to TouringCarTimes. “Then I was quite fast, so maybe, in two more laps, I could have attacked Rast with DRS.”

But, on the second lap of the race, Glock, in third place, braked late and hit Auer – sending him into a spin.

The Austrian felt frustrated at what he considered an unnecessary move.

“Now with the higher pressure it’s a bloody long race and, after two laps, everybody is still on the pace, after five laps, maybe not, maybe yes,” he said. “So it’s a shame to have a problem on the second lap, so early, something that could have resolved itself with tyre degradation, but well, that’s tough.

“After the contact the floor was destroyed, so I couldn’t drive well anymore, and then the brakes also stopped working properly so I thought I couldn’t continue.”

Glock put his hands up about the collision.

“The incident with Lucas was my mistake,” he said. “I had to open the brakes because I had a bit of rear lock and I couldn’t avoid the contact.”

Auer now lies seventh in the standings, 94 points behind Gary Paffett, after not scoring any points in the last two rounds.