The eighth and penultimate round of the 2017 DTM season in Spielberg ended disappointingly for Augusto Farfus. After his bad luck in Saturday’s race, when he had to go through the gravel to avoid an accident, his hopes for points were not fulfilled in Sunday’s encounter at the Red Bull Ring. The BMW Team RMG driver finished outside the points in 12th.
In morning qualifying, Augusto was 12th in his Shell BMW M4 DTM. He opted for an early pit stop as this has proved to be a good strategy to gain positions in previous races of the season. This time, however, it did not work as his tyre performance soon began to drop off. The race was additionally spiced-up by a safety car period with 15 minutes to go and a re-start with a lot of contact. Augusto used the safety car period to get another set of tyres but had to settle for 12th in a race that was difficult for the entire BMW team, with only two cars in the points.
“Unfortunately, our strategy with the early stop did not pay off today as we had too much tyre degradation,” Augusto summed up. “We stopped again behind the safety car which was very good but then the re-start was so chaotic that I could not make use of the new tyres. This weekend we just did not quite have the pace in the car so we now have to focus on Hockenheim.”
The ninth and final round of the 2017 DTM will be held in Hockenheim in Germany from 13th to 15th October. Augusto is determined to finish the season on a high in his Shell BMW M4 DTM.
