Audi claims early title

As the DTM celebrated its milestone 500th race on Sunday, Audi celebrated another achievement of its own, clinching the DTM manufacturers’ title for 2019 with four races still to run in this year’s series.

Racing at the Lausitzring circuit, the Audi teams dominated again from the start, recording a 1-2-3 result in Saturday’s race before going on to repeat the feat on Sunday and clinch the manufacturers’ trophy.

“Audi has now won three of the last four manufacturers’ titles in the DTM,” said Head of Audi Motorsport Dieter Gass. “That’s a strong performance and shows the high level our entire squad has been working on for years. This includes our drivers, our teams, our partners and every individual involved in the DTM project. Clinching the manufacturers’ title so early and with such a big advantage shows that we’ve simply been delivering a mega season so far. I think that even four races before the end of the season, it’s fair for us to say that our Audi RS 5 DTM has been the car to beat this year and that we’ve also built an extremely strong and efficient engine. The fact that this engine concept can be found in a very large number of Audi production models worldwide, too makes this title win all the more valuable. The manufacturers’ title also belongs to all employees at Audi who work for our brand day in day out with heart and soul.” 

In this, the first season of the new turbo era of DTM racing, Audi has clearly been the brand to beat and the Audi RS 5 DTM, the car to beat.

This historic weekend for the DTM was just another demonstration of that dominance and saw more firsts notched up for the brand. It was the first time this season that a single manufacturer had won both races of the weekend and with all eight Audi teams finishing in the top nine positions on Sunday, sent a clear message to the opposition teams.

Although the manufacturers’ title is now accounted for, both the drivers’ and teams’ championships are yet to be decided, although René Rast again extended his lead in the drivers’ standings with a win on Sunday. Rast was forced to retire from Saturday’s race due to an electrical issue with his car, but more than made up for it on Sunday – his fifth for the season.

“Winning the 500th race in DTM history is very special,” said Rast. “A big thank you from me goes to the guys in the pit lane who worked up until the early morning hours and gave me a perfect car again. It’s also great that Audi, with an extremely strong result, has won the manufacturers’ championship early – we have the strongest package this year.”
Second place holder, Nico Müller, sits just 20 points behind Rast on the table, after winning Saturday’s race – his second win of the season – with BMW’s Marco Wittmann 47 points behind him in third.

In the teams’ classification, three Audi teams are fighting it out for top honours in 2019, with Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline leading Audi Sport Team Rosberg and Audi Sport Team Phoenix sitting in third.

Just two rounds and four races remain in the 2019 DTM season, with teams heading to the Nürburgring on September 14 and 15, before the final two races at the Hockenheimring on October 4 and 5.