Weekly Racing Roundup (8.26.19)

Photo: Audi

Rast, Mueller Set for DTM Title Battle; Audi Secures Manufacturers’ Championship

Rene Rast and Nico Mueller have effectively narrowed the DTM championship battle to a duel between themselves by both winning a race at the Lausitzring this weekend.

Mueller took victory in Race 1, scoring not only his first win at the east German track but his first podium too, while Rast won Sunday’s race.

Rast retired from the lead on Saturday, gifting Mueller an opportunity to close the gap in the drivers’ standings, something he took full advantage of with a win.

Audi Sport Team Rosberg’s Rast bounced back on Sunday to take the win but with Mueller finishing second he was only able to increase his championship lead by seven points.

Rast now has a 20-point lead over Mueller heading to the next round at the Nürburgring, with a total of four races left to run.

Marco Wittmann is still third as the best-placed BMW driver but poor performance for the field’s six BMW M4 DTMs affected the two-time champion too, who is 67 points down on Rast.

Audi’s domination on the roval circuit was enough for it to lock up the manufacturers’ championship four races early, building up an insurmountable lead over BMW.

RESULTS: Race 1; Race 2

News & Notes

***Super Formula points leader and GT regular Nick Cassidy will headline one of Eurasia Motorsport’s LMP2 entries in the Asian Le Mans Series, sharing a Ligier JS P217 Gibson with Daniel Gaunt and Nobuya Yamanaka.

***Jamie Green will drive for Phoenix Racing in this weekend’s Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe rounds at the Nürburgring, Kim-Luis Schramm’s teammate. Frank Stippler and Jean-Karl Vernay have occupied that seat so far this year.

***Kessel Racing has added an Am Cup Ferrari 488 GT3 for Rory Penttinen and Blancpain GT Sports Club regular Stephen Earle, meanwhile.

Daniel Lloyd contributed to this report

Jake Kilshaw

Jake Kilshaw is a UK-based journalist. He is a graduate of Politics and International Relations.