It was a disappointing third weekend of the 2016 DTM season for Augusto Farfus at Germany’s Lausitzring. Today’s 60-minute race came to a premature end when another competitor hit the back of his Shell BMW M4 DTM and forced the BMW Team MTEK driver into a spin.
After finishing 21st in yesterday’s 40-minute sprint race, Augusto aimed to change his fortunes today. In the very closely fought qualifying – with gaps of only a few hundredths of seconds – he finished 19th. In the race itself, which was held in the afternoon in hot temperatures of over 30 degrees Celsius, he started a catch-up. But his way forward ended at the start of lap eight, when all of a sudden the rear of his Shell BMW M4 DTM was hit by Miguel Molina’s Audi while he was approaching turn 1. Augusto’s car spun and stopped in the run-off area with quite a lot of damage. Molina was penalised with a drive-through penalty for causing a collision.
When Augusto walked back to the pits he was cheered by the crowds in the main grandstand, but this was not much of a consolation at the end of a difficult weekend in Lusatia.
Augusto reported afterwards: “I was defending my position and I think Molina completely forgot to brake. He just hit me and that was the end of my race. It is a shame as there still was a long race in front of us. But what can you do?”
“Overall it was a difficult weekend,” Augusto summed up. “We struggled to find the balance for the car, and when you start from the back of the grid a lot of things can happen. So that was a shame. The team worked really hard to improve the car, but it simply did not work.”
After the first six races of the season, Augusto is tenth in the drivers’ championship standings with 32 points. The next round, where races seven and eighth will be held, is at the Norising in Germany’s Nuremberg in three weeks from 24th to 26th June.
