The second round of the 2017 DTM season at the German Lausitzring turned out to be a difficult one for Augusto Farfus and his fellow BMW drivers. After 12th place in Saturday’s race, the BMW Team RMG driver had hoped for better fortunes in Sunday’s race. In fact, he finished the extremely close morning qualifying in ninth place in his Shell BMW M4 DTM. In the race itself, however, he fought with blunt weapons and had to settle for 14th.
In the early stages, Augusto improved to eighth and held position until he pitted on lap 14. In his second stint, the driver from Curitiba was still on course to the points’ positions but in the latter stages of the race he increasingly struggled to defend his position against faster competitors and dropped back. Finishing the race in 14th, he was still the third best BMW driver. Only Maxime Martin and Marco Wittmann scored points in their BMW M4 DTM, crossing the line in eighth and ninth respectively.
“Today, we had a better qualifying, but we struggled again with the race pace,”he reported.“Without a proper race pace you can’t do much in the end. All the BMWs were too slow during the race and we paid a lot.”
Augusto leaves this difficult round behind him and fully focuses on next weekend, when the highlight of the GT racing season awaits him: the legendary 24-hour race at the Nürburgring-Nordschleife. He loves the “Green Hell” and was the first Brazilian to win this endurance classic back in 2010. This year, he will be in action in both BMW M6 GT3s of BMW Team Schnitzer – the team he celebrated his Nordschleife victory with.
“This definitely is the highlight of the season,” Augusto enthuses. “Driving for Schnitzer again, the team I have so many great memories with – the history and on top of it driving two cars – makes it an extremely unique chance for me and I am looking forward to it so much. The 24-hour race at the Nürburgring is always a lucky dip; it is the most challenging circuit of the season, but I can’t wait to jump in the cockpit and to drive around the ‘Green Hell’ again.”
The 24-hour race will start on Saturday, 27th May at 15:30 local time. The next DTM round is scheduled for 17th/18th June at the Hungaroring near the Hungarian capital Budapest.
