Breaking news
DTM Hockenheim
Rast’s two-stop Hockenheim victory was his “craziest race ever”
Audi DTM star Rene Rast has described his win in the opening round at Hockenheim as “one of my craziest races ever” and says he was lucky that an Audi stablemate caused the safety car that transformed his race.
Marcus Simmons
Published: May 5, 2019, 6:10 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Rast, the 2017 champion, started down in 16th position on the 18-car grid because of a fuel-system problem on his RS5 DTM in qualifying. An inspired call brought the Team Rosberg driver into the pits on the eighth lap when the race went under safety car to retrieve the Audi of Loic Duval from the Sachskurve gravel trap.
Although Rast could not count this pitstop as his mandatory stop because it was under caution, it gave him a fresh set of tyres with which he raced through the field and established an impregnable lead. Following his second, mandatory pitstop, Rast led home Audi stablemates Nico Muller and Robin Frijns in a 1-2-3 for the manufacturer.
“It was one of my craziest races ever I would say, starting from 16th and winning the race,” said Rast. “Obviously it was a very aggressive strategy, stopping under the safety car and getting new tyres.”
With the race only remaining under caution for one lap, Rast and fellow pitter Paul di Resta’s Aston Martin only just caught the pack as they restarted, so it was a tight call.
“The safety car just stayed out for one lap and then I had to hurry a bit exiting the pitlane to catch the train,” explained Rast. “At the start-finish I was lucky enough to be just there and made a good start and could pass some cars, and then on the new tyres it took me three or four laps until I got through the field.
“It was a great strategy of the team, everyone did a great job today and I’m very grateful to take victory after the bad day yesterday.”
Rast explained that the two-stop strategy was always regarded as a potential tactic, and joked that Duval’s off was not deliberate.
“We always had it in mind,” he said. “When you are P16, or somewhere outside the top 10, always you have to gamble and this time we knew if there was a safety car this was our chance to make up positions. We spoke about it beforehand and in the end we were just lucky it happened like we hoped.
“It was for sure not planned – it was not the plan that Loic was in the gravel!”
Rast still had to overtake 14 cars to get back into the lead on his fresh tyres, and when asked by Autosport about that risk on a chaotic DTM double-file restart he said: “Two times I was just missed by a few centimetres by cars spinning in front of me. Marco [Wittmann] got turned around, and somebody else spun in front of me and I had to avoid them as well.
“So there was a bit of chaos, and I think on track I passed five cars – not more. The rest of the places I got from spinning cars in front of me, which is lucky, but sometimes it’s like that.”
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Hockenheim DTM: Rast charges from back to seal epic win for Audi
Next article Super GT reveals further details of joint DTM race
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Marcus Simmons
A motorsport life in graphic detail
General
A motorsport life in graphic detail
More from
Loic Duval
Peugeot close to "acceptable" reliability with WEC Hypercar
WEC
WEC Feb 28, 2023
Peugeot close to "acceptable" reliability with WEC Hypercar
Why Dunlop's breakthrough GT500 season was never repeated
Super GT
Super GT Jan 10, 2023
Why Dunlop's breakthrough GT500 season was never repeated
Peugeot driver Duval warns against axing LMP2 class from WEC
WEC
WEC Dec 14, 2022
Peugeot driver Duval warns against axing LMP2 class from WEC
More from
Audi Sport Team Rosberg
Audi's Muller explains factors that helped end DTM win drought
DTM
DTM May 18, 2022
Audi's Muller explains factors that helped end DTM win drought
Audi's Muller not expecting many more DTM win chances in 2022
DTM
DTM
Algarve
May 2, 2022
Audi's Muller not expecting many more DTM win chances in 2022
Muller leads Bortolotti as Hockenheim DTM test ends
DTM
DTM
April Hockenheim testing
Apr 6, 2022
Muller leads Bortolotti as Hockenheim DTM test ends
Latest news
The ten closest finishes from the 2026 NASCAR season
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup 1 h
The ten closest finishes from the 2026 NASCAR season
‘Lewis suspected a conspiracy’ – Nico Rosberg explains how Lewis Hamilton F1 rivalry went awry at Mercedes
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1 1 h
‘Lewis suspected a conspiracy’ – Nico Rosberg explains how Lewis Hamilton F1 rivalry went awry at Mercedes
BMW "proud of what we achieved" after securing runner-up in 2026 WEC
WEC
WEC WEC
Monza
3 h
BMW "proud of what we achieved" after securing runner-up in 2026 WEC
The numbers that reveal how sprint races have turned the MotoGP title fight upside down
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Qatar GP
5 h
The numbers that reveal how sprint races have turned the MotoGP title fight upside down
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe