Augusto Farfus was in a positive mood this morning at Russia’s Moscow Raceway heading into the 12th race of the 2015 DTM season. However, his high hopes were not fulfilled. The driver from Curitiba finished today’s 60-minute race just outside the points in 11th. This meant he has to leave Russia empty handed, but is determined to strike back in two weeks’ time at the next DTM round in Germany’s Oschersleben.
After the warm-up in the morning, qualifying for today’s race was held in the early afternoon. Farfus qualified ninth on the grid in his Shell BMW M4 DTM, a position which the BMW Team RBM driver wanted to transfer into points. The start, however, was hectic with a lot of contact in the first corners. Farfus dropped down one position and was tenth when the field had completed the first lap. After 20 minutes he entered the pits for his mandatory stop. He tried to fight for points, but had to settle with 11th when he crossed the finish line after 41 laps.
“We did not have the pace,” Farfus commented. “We had difficulties yesterday and we chased the balance of the car the entire weekend. Right now it is difficult for us to understand what direction we should take to improve the balance of the car. The only car that was really spot-on this weekend was Bruno’s. So we have to learn from that.” Fellow BMW driver Bruno Spengler finished both Moscow races on the podium, being third yesterday and second today.
“Today we had at least a little better car, but unfortunately we started the weekend far behind, so we had to catch up. Unfortunately it was not enough,” Farfus said before adding: “But we will turn the page hopefully in Oschersleben.” On the German Oschersleben track Farfus won in 2013, and has been in the points every time he has raced there.
In the Drivers’ Championship, Farfus is currently 13th with 43 points. The next DTM round at Oschersleben with race numbers 13 and 14 of the season will be held from 11th to 13th September.
