The New Zealand, Red Bull AlphaTauri AF Corse driver, was unchallenged on his way to a second win in as many races in DTM’s race one at Spielberg, with René Rast following him home to cut his gap to Championship leader Sheldon Van der Linde dramatically.
Racing got underway with Nick Cassidy starting from pole, after René Rast, who was quickest in qualifying was pushed back three places due to a grid penalty he picked up from fighting Cassidy in the previous race at Spa.
At the start, Cassidy held onto his lead. Whilst Rast showed all his years of DTM racing experience to move up into second by turn three. Taking Nico Müller by surprise around turn one, before similarly overtaking Ricardo Feller into three.
Simultaneously, Feller was involved in another battle as a fast-starting Felipe Fraga tried to take the Swiss driver on the inside. However, it all ended in tears as the two made contact, leaving Fraga with a puncture, which caused him to plummet down the order before eventually retiring.
But the main battle of the race came from the flying Küs Team Bernhard driver Thomas Preining and Nico Müller. The two were embroiled in an epic back-and-forth battle that saw them change positions countless times. Only being decided after the pair made contact for the second occasion, and Preining was awarded a 10-second penalty for his involvement. Dropping the Austrian down to tenth place by the checkered flag. While Müller went on to record a fourth-placed finish.
Cassidy ahead up front had gone on to build up a two-second buffer between himself and second-placed Rast. Whilst Mirko Bortolotti, who was in third, was again back in the podium positions where he has spent the majority of this season in.
But a slow pitstop that saw his left front tyre get stuck, saw any chance of him catching René Rast slip away. As he fell nearly ten seconds behind the German driver. This saw him fall into the clutches of Lucas Auer, but before Auer could do anything about it. He was handed a ten-second penalty for speeding in the pitlane. A devasting blow for Auer, as he was looking like taking a big bite out of Sheldon Van der Linde’s championship lead. With the South African struggling down in eleventh.
Nick Cassidy had no such problems, convincingly heading home to pick up his second win in a row. All the more impressive when you take into consideration that the New Zealander was holding twenty-five kilograms of success ballast from his Spa win. As his #37 Ferrari was the pick of the field.
Out of the championship contenders, it was René Rast who would have been the most pleased following race one in Austria. He cut the gap to Van der Linde by eighteen points to just twelve.
