The second round of the 2018 DTM Series took place last weekend at the Lausitzring with Edoardo Mortara and Gary Paffett leaving victorious.
It was another difficult weekend for Audi compared with BMW and Mercedes with Saturday’s race a disaster for them with only two cars making the finish.
Arriving at the Lausitzring Timo Glock led the championship over Paffett by just one point, the margin remains the same as they move on to the next round.
Green-Müller Starting Grid Incident
Wanting to get their weekend off to a better start following a difficult opening round at Hockenheim, as well as qualifying at the back of the grid for the third race of the year was Audi’s Nico Müller and Jamie Green.
Müller had not been able to pull off of the grid after his engine stalled, the Swiss driver was unsighted by his team-mate Green who clattered into his rear.
As a result their races were over before they had even started.
The race was neutralised by the safety car which remained on track for around fifteen minutes to allow for the major clean up job to be done.
Incredibly their teams got repaired the duo’s cars for Sunday with Green finishing an incredible sixth place in the race.
However, it was not as positive for Müller who having set the fastest time in FP3 qualified in thirteenth and finished the race in seventeenth.
René Rast’s Weekend Ending Crash
Reigning champion René Rast, like most his Audi brand-mates, has been struggling to get his footing in the championship thus far.
The German had qualified in ninth place and would have been focussed on getting his season underway properly.
When racing finally resumed after the Green-Müller incident, the action lasted for barely three quarters of the lap before the red flag was brought out – signally a stoppage in action.
Rast had been battling with Loïc Duval when the pair made the slightest of contact which forced the German on to the grass.
The RS5 dug into the ground and was flung airborne, ripping apart the Audi and leaving the monocoque exposed due to bodywork being ripped off.
Remarkably, Rast was uninjured and signalled to those anxiously watching on that he was okay.
He spent the night in hospital, reporting of only a sore elbow but was not deemed fit to race bu the medical staff.
The incident also brought Duval’s race to an end.
Mortara’s First Mercedes Win
As a result of the Rast crash, racing was halted until there was twenty-two minutes remaining on the clock – with only two half laps having been completed at racing speeds.
Due to the rules, the drivers all still had to serve their mandatory pitstops despite the reduced lap time setting up a sprint to the finish.
Mortara made the decision to try and leave his stop as late as possible – a strategy that does not usually pay off.
However, due to the nature of the race and the bunched up field this payed dividends for the Italian.
A pair of stunning laps after his stop put the Mercedes driver into second place and took advantage of the DRS to take the lead from Philipp Eng.
It was the Italian’s first win since the Hockenheim finale back in 2016, in what was his last race as an Audi driver.
This result will be a huge wait off of Mortara’s back after waiting so long to return to the top step.
As is the fickle nature of racing, Sunday was not as kind to Mortara with the Italian only managing eleventh place in the race.
Philipp Eng Shines on Sunday
Having started from second the day before, and then going on to secure his first podium finish in the DTM with third, BMW’s Philipp Eng managed to go one better and claim pole position.
For much of the Saturday session it had looked as though Eng had pole all sewn up, until Lucas Auer came and upset the apple cart with a last gasp attempt.
Achieve it he did on Sunday morning though.
In a session where drivers were unable to improve on their initial lap times in qualifying, Eng had set a banker lap that was quick enough to secure pole by two hundredths over Pascal Wehrlein.
The race however did not go quite as well.
Eng struggled with the balance of his BMW and found himself tumbling down the order.
Managing to recover he finished in seventh place, which would be disappointing having started on pole but is a huge achievement for someone in only their fourth race in the championship.
Glock Maintains Championship Lead
When the drivers arrived at the Lausitzring, Timo Glock held an one point advantage in the championship over Gary Paffett.
That same gap remains following the two qualifying and race sessions that made up round two.
Glock seems to be going through a “purple” patch at the moment; so far this season he has stood on the podium three out of four times and will be hoping to maintain this form.
Paffett and Glock may be in a close battle, but the two have created a big gap between themselves as the rest of the drivers – Wehrlein in third place of the championship is thirty-two points behind second placed man Paffett already.
However, Glock will not be able to rest on his laurels as anything can and will happen over the course of the season.
The series returns to action 1-3 June at the Hungaroring.
