Six straight

A weekend charged with emotion, a capacity crowd at the Hockenheimring and a final round of the DTM Championship, in which René Rast had the slimmest of chances of bringing off the ultimate title defence.

It was also the end of an era, with Mercedes-Benz competing for the last time in the German Touring Car Masters (DTM), a series it had contested for more than two decades, with legendary battles against rivals Audi.

For Rast and the other Audi teams, the 2018 season had got off to a difficult start, and yet with four straight victories coming into the final round, he still had the slimmest of chances of defending his championship crown. 

That was not to be, but what the 31-year-old German did do, was win both races over the weekend, to break his owning record winning streak and make it six straight victories.

The result secured second for the year, which was nothing short of astounding. 

“I’m very proud of Audi Sport, Team Rosberg and of myself, too,” an elated Rast said of the result.

“We had a tough start to the season, but never gave up, kept improving the car and also made progress in terms of strategy. All of the Audi drivers worked together fantastically as a team. Only by doing so, was it possible to keep the title dream open up until the end. Ultimately, it wasn’t quite enough. That’s a little bit of a shame, but Gary (Paffett) and Mercedes-Benz deserved to win.”

Nevertheless, Rast’s comeback from being ranked 15th after the first nine races in the season, to finish second by just 4 points was incredible.

“It was a fantastic way to close the season for the DTM, as well as for Audi Sport with two tremendous races in front of a great crowd,” said Head of Audi Motorsport Dieter Gass. “I’m very proud of what we achieved this weekend. At the beginning of the season, we were out in the middle of nowhere and now we finished the season with six victories in succession by René (Rast). And there are no regrets: We gave our all and won both races.”

Even before the race started, Audi made for a goose bumps moment in the full house of the Hockenheim Motodrom, with an emotional film bidding farwell to Mercedes-Benz from the DTM that saw the capacity crowd give a standing ovation. In addition, all six Audi RS 5 DTM cars ran with the inscription

“SEE YOU!” emblazoned on the rear wings, in which the “O” was represented by a star.

Audi Sport is already working for the new DTM season that will open in May 2019, with the new two-litre four-cylinder turbo engine already running in a test car of the Audi RS 5 DTM.