Dieter Gass (Head of Audi Motorsport)
“The DTM weekend felt like an extremely long one, with ups and downs. On Saturday, after a great qualifying and a good start, we didn’t respond quickly enough when the first cars pitted early. Then the safety car was deployed and instead of a victory we had to settle only for positions four to six. That was extremely frustrating and still hurts, which made it all the more important for us to strike back on Sunday. The second race was fantastic for Audi, but we’d actually been planning for such a result on both days. For René Rast I’m incredibly happy: he’s been delivering an awesome debut season in the DTM.”
René Rast (AUTO BILD MOTORSPORT Audi RS 5 DTM #33) position 6 / position 1
“It was a near-perfect weekend. ‘Near’ because I was on pole position twice, but on podium ‘only’ once. On Saturday, a better result would no doubt have been possible. But you’ve got no control over when the safety car comes out. Otherwise, on Saturday, we’d have been able to achieve a similar result as on Sunday. But, obviously, I’m mega happy about my first victory. Before the weekend, the thought of leaving here as the championship leader didn’t cross my mind.”
Jamie Green (Hoffmann Group Audi RS 5 DTM #53) disqualified (position 7) / position 5
“The weekend was difficult. Seventh place on Saturday was okay. We made somewhat of a wrong choice in strategy and were affected by the early safety car period. After the race, I was disqualified. Now we need to wait and see if I’ll get back the points. At the end of qualifying on Sunday, I didn’t manage a good lap, which made the race difficult. I was able to overtake two cars and had a good race, but a poor pit stop. It was a weekend with ups and downs.”
Mattias Ekström (Red Bull Audi RS 5 DTM #5) position 5 / position 2
“I’m satisfied with my performance in qualifying and my race pace. My start on Saturday was pretty good but, unfortunately, less than perfect on Sunday. On the whole, though, we made a big step forwards and I’m very happy with this weekend.”
Mike Rockenfeller (Schaeffler Audi RS 5 DTM #99) position 4 / position 10
“The weekend wasn’t as great as expected. I think we could easily have clinched two top-five results because qualifying was pretty good. The race on Sunday cost many points. We had an issue before the start and, to make things worse, the stop went wrong too. We’ve been in the points six times, but the season is still long. We expect to be winning races again and then we’ll be in front again too.”
Nico Müller (Playboy Audi RS 5 DTM #51) position 10 / position 4
“Following a great start on Sunday, we were actually aiming for a podium. But Mattias (Ekström) played his cards well and our strategy didn’t quite pan out. That’s why we dropped from second place back to fourth. The BMW that still snuck up from behind bugs me a little. A podium would no doubt have been nice, but we don’t mind taking home the points for fourth place. Sunday was a good day and Saturday a little less so.”