Augusto Farfus was determined to fight back in Sunday’s 60-minute race at Zandvoort, after the sprint race on Saturday had ended prematurely for him. However, a drive through penalty prevented the BMW Team MTEK driver from transferring the strong race pace of his Shell BMW M4 DTM into a result in the points.
Augusto started the tenth race of the 2016 DTM season from 17th on the grid. When the lights went out, he set his sights on working his way forward, but as early as turn one he was pushed off the track by another car. Later when he tried to pass the Audi of Timo Scheider the two collided, Scheider spun and Augusto was given a drive-through penalty. After 39 laps, he crossed the line in 13th.
He reported afterwards: “It was pretty inconsistent, because when I was pushed completely off the track and lost a lot of time there was no penalty given. When I tried to pass Scheider I was on the inside kerb and he just turned into me. When we had the contact he spun. I know that you get a penalty when you turn people around, but I honestly had no room to go anywhere. It was a shame to get the penalty, because our race pace was good and we could have finished in the points.”
Augusto will put the weekend in the Zandvoort dunes behind him as soon as possible, as he is leaving the Dutch track empty handed: “We came to my favourite circuit of the year and to a track where we had a very good history. Unfortunately this time we could not get the results, for different reasons. In the end, I look on the positive side. I take home a very good race pace, as in the race I was one of the fastest cars on track. We still have to improve our qualifying performance and then we will see if we can fight back and get some points.”
But first there is a break to take a breather, as the DTM season will only resume in five weeks. The 11th and 12th races of the season will be held on 20th and 21st August at the Moscow Raceway in Russia.
