Dream Race – C2: Karthikeyan winner, Duval 3rd

In the first laps of the race, we seemed to be heading towards a scenario similar to that of yesterday, with DTM unable to keep up with the Super GT cars. Started on pole, Loïc duval (Audi RS5 no. 28) cannot resist Narain Karthikeyan for more than one lap, before helplessly falling back to fourth place.

The Frenchman then suffered a burst of his left rear tire and was forced to return to the pit box. But on his exit lap, he lost his right rear shoe, which led to the intervention of the safety car. Benoît Tréluyer (Audi RS5 no. 21) and Alessandro Zanardi (BMW M4 no. 4) took the opportunity to change their tires.

The race restarted, Benoît went into “full attack” mode and took the lead after his opponents observed their refueling. The Frenchman will maintain his position for a certain time before another intervention by the safety car following… the burst of the right rear tire of René Rast's No. 5 Audi RS33.

The three-time winner of 24 Hours of Le Mans remains on the track, unlike Loïc, who uses fresh tires and starts again in 13th position. His stop under safety car regime being “transparent”, Benoît is forced to return to the pit lane. Meanwhile, Loïc climbs back into the peloton and offers a muscular duel from which he emerges victorious with Kamui Kobayashi (BMW M4 n°00) during which the two men did not give each other any favors.

But the safety car took to the track a third time eight minutes from the goal, due to two consecutive pile-ups after which eight cars remained on the floor. The leading quarter is then made up of Narain Karthikeyan, Marco Wittmann, Loïc Duval and Kamui Kobayashi. The race is restarted for a final lap and the Habs throw all their strength into the battle and launch into a bitter duel for second place with their German opponent. He manages to get the better of the final corner where, pushed to the outside by his rival, he has no other choice but to go to the other side of the curb.

Finally, the sports commissioners decided to impose a one-second penalty on the Habs, which is still debated. Loïc is, unfortunately, demoted to third place behind Narain Karthikeyan and Marco Wittmann. Thanks to this result, he makes forget his misfortunes of yesterday and perfectly ends this week during which he will have been the most prominent DTM driver in terms of pure performance.

Benoît Tréluyer finished 10th after getting the better of a handful of competitors during the last quarter of the race. The official driver of the brand with the rings proves that his sixth place yesterday – best DTM driver – was not usurped and that he has lost none of his talent despite his weak presence in the race over the last three years .

*: Ranking before the 1” penalty imposed on Loïc Duval