After Saturday’s race at Brands Hatch, Augusto Farfus was celebrating on the podium, but his fortunes were as unpredictable as the British weather, as in Sunday’s race Lady Luck was no longer on his side. He was robbed of his chance of another top result as soon as the first lap, when two cars collided in front of him and his Shell BMW M4 DTM was damaged as a result. The BMW Team RMG driver continued but had to retire halfway through the race.
In the morning’s qualifying, Augusto was again the fastest BMW driver in seventh. His aim was to work his way further up through the field, but his hopes ended on lap one. In the tight pack, he could not avoid the two cars colliding in front of him and his Shell BMW M4 DTM sustained damage to the left front. He could, however, continue to race and when he pitted on lap seven, his BMW Team RMG tried their hardest to fix the bodywork with tape. Augusto went out on track again, but then came back to the garage after half an hour and retired.
“I think that Auer and Frijns were battling, and Auer was about to spin and I was just a passenger – I could not do anything,” Augusto reported. “He just spun in front of me and I could not avoid the hit. I touched him and the race was over.”
Never giving up, Augusto nervertheless tried his best to stay in the race: “It was impossible to drive but I hoped for the rain to come and that we could have gambled a little bit. But there was no point.”
Augusto will now stay in Great Britain as his next race is up this coming weekend. He will compete at Silverstone in the FIA World Endurance Championship with the BMW M8 GTE and BMW Team MTEK.
