One point in it as rookie chases DTM title

Weekend Racing Wrap

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The DTM season passed the halfway mark with its Russian round and the drivers left the Moscow Raceway with the top two separated by one point and a rookie in contention for the crown.

Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters

Races 9-10: Moscow

Rookie Rene Rast took his second win of the season in the opening race after inheriting pole position. He led home Mike Rockenfeller who secured his best finish of the year despite racing with a broken foot.

Rast could win DTM title as a rookie
Marco Wittmann originally took pole but was demoted five places for picking up a third warning of the season at the previous round. The BMW driver finished third after Timo Glock collided with Mattias Ekstrom and another incident claimed Rockenfeller and Augusto Farfus ahead colliding in separate incidents.

Maro Engel, who returned to the series this season after a five-year absence, took his first DTM win in race two. Again the fastest driver in qualifying didn’t start on pole, as Tom Blomqvist was excluded from the results for not having enough fuel for a sample. This left Bruno Spengler to head the field away, a lead he kept until Ekstrom got past on lap eleven.

Meanwhile Engel had pitted at the end of the opening lap, and as the rest of the field filtered through their stops later on, Engel inherited the lead and took the win. Ekstrom was unable to catch him but heads to Zandvoort with a point in hand over Rast at the top of the table.

Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup

Races 14-15: Red Bull Ring

Max Fewtrell took his first win the series in the opening race of the weekend, heading home Sacha Fenestraz and Max Defourny, who had started on pole position. The three were separated by less than one second at the flag after a late attacked by Defourny on Fewtrell resulted in him losing second place on the final lap to Fenestraz.

Fenestraz dominated proceedings in race two with pole, fastest lap and the win to extend his championship lead. He overcame two Safety Car restarts – the latter ending with just three laps remaining – to lead Will Palmer and Gabriel Aubry to the chequered flag.

IMSA

Race 8: Lime Rock

IMSA held one of their two GT-only races of the season at Lime Rock Park. Porsche took a one-two finish in the headline GTLM category – the first win for the new mid-engined 911 RSR.

Patrick Pilet and Dirk Werner took the chequered flag ahead of the pole sitting 912 car of Laurens Vanthoor and ex-Minardi driver Gianmaria Bruni, while the final podium spot was subject to a thrilling fight between the BMW of Martin Tomczyk and the Corvette of Antonio Garcia, with the BMW getting the place.

Porsche completed a dominant performance with victory in GTD for Park Place Motorsports with Jorg Bergmeister and Patrick Lindsey at the wheel.

Video not available yet.

NASCAR Cup

Race 20: Indianapolis

Not for the first time NASCAR’s race at the home of the Indianapolis 500 was overshadowed by talk of how thin the crowd was at the enormous venue. A passing storm which caused a red flag didn’t help matters, and when the racing began it was interrupted by a series of cautions for accidents. Kasey Kahne made it to the overtime line just before the final caution was called to take victory ahead of Brad Keselowski.

Guest series: European Le Mans Series

Race 3: Red Bull Ring

Just two weeks after hosting the Austrian Grand Prix, the Red Bull Ring played host to the third round of the European Le Mans Series in front of a crowd of 18,000. McLaren CEO Zak Brown’s United Autosports team was victorious, Filipe Albuquerque, Hugo de Sadeleer and Will Owen’s Ligier-Gibson taking the chequered flag ahead of Memo Rojas, Nicolas Minassian and Leo Roussel.

Giorgio Mondini and Davide Uboldi shared LMP3 victory while Duncan Cameron, Matt Griffin and Aaron Scott won the six-car GTE class.

Over to you

What racing action did you watch last weekend? Let us know in the comments.

Next weekend’s racing

Formula One has its last race weekend before the summer break at the Hungaroring. Formula Two and GP3 will also be in action for the third weekend out of four.

Here’s the other motor racing action to look forward to when the working week is over:

  • British Touring Car Championship races 16-18: Snetterton
  • European Formula Three races 16-18: Spa-Francorchamps
  • Formula E races 11-12: Montreal
  • IndyCar race 13: Mid-Ohio
  • NASCAR Cup race 21: Pocono
  • World Rally Championship round 9: Finland

Thanks to Robert Mathershaw (@mathers) for contributing to this article.

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10 comments on “One point in it as rookie chases DTM title”

  1. Race at Lime Rock 11/10, what a race. Those that really have a hunger for racing and are willingly to follow a new series, IMSA is just the thing. Same idea as the WEC just loads shorter, and honestly on the best tracks America has to offer.

    Also Porsche 1-2 in GTLM and 1-3 in GTD. So I’m happy.

    1. Oh, and regarding the DTM, once again it’s Audi who has the biggest chance winning the title. Hopefully BoP doesn’t ruin it big time for them this year. Either Ekström or Rast is fine by me although I do feel Ekström deserves this one as he’s has some terrible luck in the past three seasons now.

      1. Having followed DTM for almost 2 decades I can say that Eki doesn’t only deserve it due to his driving but also his incredibly awesome personality! A true racer and great spirit – any series would be happy to have guys like him!

    2. Agreed. I was there, it was a great race. Those Porsches were so crazy LOUD, like a mid 90 F1. Contrasting to the Corvettes with their V8 roar, its quite a show. Its a great place to watch a race, if you ever get the chance I highly recommend it. Its only 1.5 miles around, but it has great turns with lots of elevation change. You can walk around to every corner during the race.
      IMSA has done a great job of getting the BOP correct, so the racing is close, there are plenty of manufacturers involved, and the pit walks are the best, I would paste some pix, but it wont let me.

    3. Do they still have the “Upside-down Club”? Awarded only if you lose it on the downhill near the bridge. Of course that was probably 40 years ago.

  2. NASCAR had the time to throw the caution before Kahne crossed the line, but they purposefully waited. I don’t blame them either. It was 9 p.m. Indy time and without lights at the speedway, darkness was a big concern. By the time the last wreck would have been cleaned up, they would not have been able to see and NASCAR would have been forced to call it anyways.

    1. @dragon86 Yeah I thought it looked like they waited!

  3. I’d hardly call René Rast a rookie …

    1. He’s in his first full season in the DTM, he’d only done three races there previously, he may have prior experience from elsewhere but in the DTM he’s a rookie.

    2. He’s had a very impressive career, not surprised by his success.

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