With a strong team performance at Zandvoort, Audi has maintained the lead in all three of the DTM classifications. Mattias Ekström remains the leader of the field.
Although the cars of competitor BMW were allowed to start with 15 kilograms less weight Mike Rockenfeller, Loïc Duval, Mattias Ekström and Nico Müller (both Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline) initially clinched positions two to five for Audi on track. After the original winner, Marco Wittmann, was excluded from the classification in the evening due to a breach of rules, Audi retroactively celebrated a 1-2-3-4 win.
Overjoyed after the race was Mattias Ekström, who with a hard-fought third place, recaptured the lead of the standings. Even shortly after the race’s midpoint, the Swede reported vibrations over team radio and a pressure loss on the front left wheel a few laps before the end of the race. Consequently, the Audi driver reduced pace in the right-hand turns and at the end of the long start-finish straight, thereby avoiding a tire blow-out. In doing so, he was shielded in the final stage by his young teammate Nico Müller, who came fourth behind Ekström.
“For me, it was a tough weekend. I wasn’t fast enough in qualifying”, says Mattias Ekström. “On Saturday, I had a small mistake with a big effect. In race two on Sunday, in position three, it was good to score 15 points for the championship and taking the lead. I fought very hard for that.”
ABT Sports Director Thomas Biermaier was blessed with the Zandvoort days: “After Saturday ended in disappointment for us, we showed once again that we never give up. In spite of a slow puncture, Mattias managed to bring home position four and, as a result, took the lead of the standings again. That’s something only Eki can do. The way Nico shielded him towards the rear without being unfair was another class act. That was simply perfect teamwork! In the teams’ classification, we improved to position two at Zandvoort although, overall, we had higher expectations. But with the weight we had our backs to the wall to some extent. This weekend again showed how nonsensical the current system is. Like all the fans, we’re wishing for the performance weights to finally disappear.”