WINWARD stays in touch with the leaders
Sixth place for Mercedes-AMG driver Lucas Auer in the DTM Sunday race at the Lausitzring. Team-mate David Schumacher retires after a collision.
Mercedes-AMG Team WINWARD ended a difficult Sunday at the DEKRA Lausitzring with sixth place for Lucas Auer, collecting more valuable points for the DTM standings. The 28-year-old Austrian gained two positions over the one-hour race in the Knaus Mercedes-AMG GT3 and left Brandenburg fifth in the DTM standings. Team-mate David Schumacher (21, Salzburg), a strong seventh in qualifying in the Ravenol sister car, was involved in a collision after the mandatory pit stop and, as on the day before, did not finish.
At the rolling start, the WINWARD cars, which started side by side from row 4, did not get through the first corner smoothly and came back from the opening lap only ninth (Auer) and tenth (Schumacher). That order stayed the same until the pit stops. While Auer gained three places during the tyre changes, Schumacher collided with a rival right after the pit exit, breaking the left front rim.
Auer confidently defended sixth to the finish and got a little closer to the Porsche ahead, but not quite within striking distance. “Today I’m very disappointed,” admitted the driver from Kufstein. “Already in qualifying we didn’t show our best performance. From eighth on the grid a lot would still have been possible. But in the race we weren’t fast enough either to make decisive progress. We have to analyse what was going on. At least we collected important points again with sixth. Overall it wasn’t a bad weekend, but there’s still a lot to work through.”
David Schumacher had had enough: “After the good qualifying we had high hopes for the race. At the start I unfortunately got squeezed and lost three positions. The pace was really good, I could even have driven a touch faster than Luggi. Unfortunately the Ferrari got in my way at the pit exit after the mandatory stop. He braked alongside me on the outside, and at the corner exit I felt a hard hit. No idea where he wanted to go. A pity, a lot would have been possible today.”
“We scored well again, but certainly didn’t shine,” commented WWR team principal Christian Hohenadel. “We have to analyse why we lacked pace in the race. It’s a pity David’s good qualifying performance wasn’t rewarded again. Now we have to question and improve everything in detail to be ready for the final phase of the season.”
In three weeks (9/10 September) the DTM paddock meets for the third-to-last event of the season at the Sachsenring near Hohenstein-Ernstthal.