René Rast wins a summit duel at Spa

Defending champion René Rast and vice-champion Nico Müller wheel to wheel for an hour. This is the summary of the second race of the DTM in Spa this weekend.

Starting from pole, René Rast lasted four laps before being overtaken by Nico Müller at the Combes. The Swiss seemed to repeat his performance from the day before, namely quickly taking the lead and escaping. But this time, René Rast remained glued to his coattails. Not conceding more than a second and a half behind, he passed his rival again with six laps to go.

We thought Müller was capable of delivering the final blow using DRS at the end. Him too. Error. “I didn't know it was the last lap, no one told me." cursed Nico Muller as he got out of his Audi. “ When I realize it, it's already too late, I make a small mistake and I get too far behind. I am absolutely not happy with this second place. »

René Rast finally won, by just five tenths ahead. “ I knew he would only have one chance to pass me so I tried to apply myself in the straight line entries to make the task more difficult. I really liked this race » smiled the German.

The double DTM champion takes his eighteenth career victory, which is not enough to take the lead in the championship. It is indeed Müller, winner on Saturday and second on Sunday, who leads with a seven-point lead. The duel promises to be close in a compact season.

The referee could be Robin Frijns. The Dutchman, author of pole on Saturday, died less than five seconds behind the duo. “ I had a strategy that was the best on paper but I stopped too late. »

Behind, we once again witnessed a spectacular comeback from Jamie Green, who went from ninth to fourth place. A performance to put into perspective nevertheless, since he overtook quite a few BMWs. Like Saturday and despite a milder temperature, they were in good shape. The first, in the hands of Sheldon Van der Linde, only finished sixth.

He stayed right in front Loïc duval, seventh. The Frenchman completed an ordinary race after a poor qualifying. Note the much better performance of the tires in this second race. No driver needed to stop twice and all maintained good times until the end.

The classification of the race.

Discover the full report and analysis of the DTM round at SPA in AUTO issue 2272hebdo, available tomorrow evening in digital version and this Wednesday on newsstands.