Augusto Farfus added more points to his tally in today’s fifth race of the 2015 DTM season at Germany’s Norisring. The BMW Team RBM driver finished the 40-minute sprint race on the narrow street circuit in Nürnberg in eighth, claiming his best result of the season so far. However, the Brazilian from Curitiba was not entirely happy, as he felt there was the potential for a better result with his Shell BMW M4 DTM.
Today in the session Farfus qualified sixth on the grid, being the best placed BMW driver. “We were showing good pace in practice and it was important to put a perfect lap together. If it hadn’t been for that small mistake I made, I could have fought for pole position. Lap times are always tight here. This is how we must move forward. The race is long and you just have to get through it. With our car the potential for a strong result is definitely there,” he commented after qualifying.
However, conditions were more than tricky in the race, which was held in the late afternoon. Twenty minutes before the start a heavy thunderstorm hit the track, but it soon started to dry out again. So the drivers and teams had a decision to make: opt for wet tyres and very possibly have to pit for slicks during the sprint race, or use slick tyres from the start and take some risks on the street circuit that in parts was still very wet? Farfus and BMW Team RBM went for slicks.
“It was very tricky to get the right call regarding tyres. The team made a good decision,” Farfus reported. In the early stages, he was passed by some other drivers on wet tyres, but, as the race went on and the track dried out, Farfus improved to fifth. He pushed further towards the front, but in the last part of the race was not able to attack properly anymore, so lost some positions and eventually crossed the line in eighth.
“We suffered a lot of understeer through the race,” Farfus explained. “We could not really perform as we wanted. It is a shame because we showed a very strong pace all through the weekend, but struggled in the race. Towards the end I started to have a problem with the front and dropped a few positions. Now we will take the chance to review the car and make improvements for tomorrow.”
Tomorrow’s second qualifying will take place at 11:40 local time, the 60-minute race with a mandatory pit-stop will star at 15:18. The forecast is good: it seems that after today’s erratic weather conditions it will be dry and sunny all day tomorrow.
