René Rast hails “perfect day” as he comes closer to his second crown

Audi Sport Team Rosberg driver René Rast scored the maximum points available on Saturday at the Nürburgring to make a decisive move in his bid for a second DTM title, as his main rivals Nico Müller and Marco Wittmann faltered.

Rast continued his impressive form from free practice in qualifying as he secured pole position, his seventh of the season. Müller could only manage third as he hit traffic and Wittmann was eleventh after several errors.

At the start, Rast kept his cool to take the lead, whilst Müller jumped the start. Wittmann put in a strong recovery drive but couldn’t prevent Rast from taking his sixth victory of the season.

“That was a perfect day,” said Rast. ““The car, the strategy, the pit stops: everything today was just perfect. A big ‘well done’ goes to my team that has been doing an outstanding job so far this weekend.”

Rast will secure his second DTM title on Sunday if he scores nine more points than Müller, whilst Wittmann would have to win – with Rast finishing out of the points – to keep any chances alive.

“That was an important step toward the championship title today,” Rast said. “I hope that tomorrow we’re going to have another day like this.”

“We saw another fantastic race by René (Rast) today,” said Audi Motorsport boss Dieter Gass. “In qualifying, he was in a class of his own once again, had a very good start, subsequently controlled the whole race and made no mistakes. Nico was perhaps a little too ambitious at the start. After jump-starting, his race was ruined.”

Rast now has 262 points to his name, 47 more than Müller and 80 more than Wittmann. Audi has already secured the manufacturers’ title and Team Rosberg and Team Abt Sportsline will take the fight for the teams’ title to the season finale.