Audi became DTM season champion
Audi pilots won two champion titles in the DTM final, held in Hockenheim on October 15-16. The Audi brand became the champion in the manufacturers’ standings for the third time, and the Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline won the fourth team win. Despite winning the Sunday race, Edoardo Mortara (Edoardo Mortara) did not have just four points to get the title and in the individual competition.
“We won the titles in the team event and in the record of the manufacturers – and that’s fine. But in the standings of the pilots, we did not have just a few points. The very ones that Edoardo Mortara unfairly lost in Zandvoort. This is the bitter pill with which it is difficult for us to put up with it, ”admitted Dieter Gass, head of DTM at Audi Sport.
In the ninth race of the season, held in Zandvoort, Holland, Edoardo Mortara was sixth, followed by another Audi pilot, Jamie Green. For the alleged violation of the rule of passing “slow zones”, Edoardobil was fined, implying travel through the pit lane. That same evening, the race management acknowledged the failure of the official GPS sensor system.
“Of course, we are very upset that these points are not enough now to win the champion title,” commented Edoardo Mortara. – But I do not intend to live with this thought. My team, engineers and mechanics – they all did a fantastic job this year, and I felt as comfortable as possible in my Audi RS 5 DTM. Winning the race was the limit of what depended on me personally today. This was my fifth victory in the 2016 season racing, and I am very proud of it. ”
As the day before, the new vice-champion DTM impressed the audience with an impressive breakthrough. Despite some technical problems during the qualifying session, Mortara turned out to be the fastest of Audi pilots and started the race from the sixth position on the starting grid. He needed only six laps to take the lead. Then he retained this leadership and won.
In the course of his breakthrough, on the sixth round, Mortara beat ahead of Marco Wittmann, his direct rival in the fight for the title. Although the BMW pilot could not keep up with the pace of Mortara, it was enough for Wittmann to finish at least in fourth place in order to become the champion in the drivers’ standings with a minimal advantage. As a result, the ratio of points gained during the season was 206: 202.
In the classification of Audi manufacturers it was possible to win a clear victory, gaining 700 points. The second place went to BMW (647 points), and the third – Mercedes-Benz (471 points). The champion title in the DTM manufacturers standings is already the third for Audi (previously, the brand celebrated the championship in 2004 and 2014). Audi RS 5 DTM, as in the past year, won a total of ten wins in 18 races and once again became the most successful car of the season.
For the fourth time in the team competition, Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline won the championship title, with Edoardo Mortara, Mattias Ekström and Mike Rockenfeller. Earlier, Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline became the team champion in 2004, 2007 and 2011.
Third place in the individual competition was Jamie Green, who plays for the Audi Sport Team Rosberg team. On his Hoffmann Group Audi RS 5 DTM during the race, he managed to break from the twenty-second to the eighth position. On Sunday, Green turned out to be the only Audi pilot who, in addition to Edoardo Mortary, managed to score test points.
Mike Rockenfeller (Schaeffler Audi RS 5 DTM), Niko Muller (Nico Müller) (Playboy Audi RS 5 DTM) and Miguel Molina (Teufel Audi RS 5 DTM) failed to score points by finishing at the eleventh, thirteenth and fourteenth respectively. places. René Rast from Audi Sport Team Phoenix on the Red Bull Audi RS 5 DTM finished 17th, becoming the best pilot on his team.
DTM’s retired career in Timo Scheider (Timo Scheider) on an AUTO BILD MOTORSPORT Audi RS 5 DTM car finished the last race for itself in the series in the eighteenth position after being fined through pit lane. Adrien Tambay (Adrien Tambay) was forced to get off after his Speedweek.com Audi RS 5 DTM hit the curb at the start.
“Despite the fact that we missed the title in the pilot classification, on the whole for Audi this was a successful DTM season – Dieter Gass summed up the year. – We had the strongest team, we won ten races in a year, and we were able to win two of three league titles. I would like to express my gratitude to all those who worked with all their might to achieve this result: the whole team of Audi Sport in Neuburg and Neckarsulm, our colleagues in Ingolstadt, three teams, pilots and, of course, our partners. “
