Rast, Mulller head to German touring car series finale aboard Audi RS 5 DTM race cars
Two Audi Sport racers aboard their respective Audi RS 5 DTM machines are now locked in a battle to secure the DTM drivers’ championship as the German touring car series heads toward its final round on November 7-8 at the Hockenheimring.
Besides its involvement in numerous international, top-level motorsports series, Audi Sport, the high-performance division of Audi AG, also develops road cars under the RS model range.
On September 20, Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline already sealed the DTM manufacturers’ crown—at the time with six races still to go in the calendar. This means Audi has now won 12 drivers’ titles and four overall championships in the DTM, after also taking the crown in 2004, 2017 and 2019.
After his fourth consecutive victory at the DTM round in Zolder, Belgium, held on October 17-18, title defender Rene Rast from Audi Sport Team Rosberg will arrive at the Hockenheimring as the points’ leader in the drivers’ standings.
The two-time DTM champion won all four of the races in Zolder and has turned a 47-point deficit into a 19-point lead within nine days. The German claimed 109 of 112 possible points in Belgium.
Rast now has 23 wins in the DTM, putting him on third in the motor sport series’ all-time list of the drivers with the most wins.
For his part, Nico Muller of Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline kept his chances of winning the drivers’ title alive by finishing second in Zolder. From fifth place on the grid, the Swiss immediately moved up to third. But unlike Rast, he was unable to drive in open air after his pit stop.
“For the finale at Hockenheim, it’s now ‘all-in!’ It is a track from which I have very good memories. I clinched my first pole position in the DTM there and won the final race last year. I don’t see why we shouldn’t be able to make Rene’s life difficult there,” Muller said.
In the turbulent Zolder race, in which only 10 cars crossed the finish line, Rast had to fight hard for his sixth victory of the season, especially during the opening laps. After two Indy restarts, Rast managed to fend off all of the attacks from Muller and also successfully countered an undercut from his fiercest rival for the 2020 title. After his pit stop, Rast remained in front of Muller.
With a gap of 41 points, Muller’s teammate Robin Frijns now has a slim chance of taking the title. Frijns was taken out of the Zolder race when he was hit from behind by two BMW drivers who crashed into each other.
