Zolder DTM: Eng and Rast score wins

Race 2 podium – Eng, Rast and Green

Audi’s Rene Rast earned a second win of the 2019 season with a commanding drive to victory at Zolder, as the field behind him enjoyed a thrilling race-long battle around the sweeps and chicanes of Belgium’s classic Zolder circuit.

Retirement on Saturday, victory on Sunday has become Rast’s modus operandi so far in 2019. But, unlike Hockenheim, where the German made best use of a canny strategy and a concerted push past other cars to claim the victory, his win on Sunday was relatively straightforward.

He passed BMW rookie Sheldon van der Linde with a decisive move into Turn One on lap 11 to assume the lead, then retained it after the round of mid-race pit-stops to comfortably lead the field home.

Saturday’s race winner Philipp Eng picked up another podium in Belgium, coming home second after another punchy race to end the weekend as the new championship leader.

After a frenetic battle on the very last lap, Jamie Green compounded Team Rosberg’s fortuned by claiming third place, his first podium finish since the 2017 season finale at Hockenheim.

Mike Rockenfeller made it three Audis in the top four despite a wild moment on the final lap which saw him skating across the grass in a spirited lunge to pass Green.

Race 1

Philipp Eng

Philipp Eng earned an emotional maiden victory as the DTM returned to its birthplace at Belgium’s Zolder circuit. The Austrian BMW driver benefited from a mid-race Safety Car period, that carved the race in half, and enabled him to take full advantage of an early stop for tires to take victory in DTM at his 23^rd attempt.

Having started from the fourth row after qualifying seventh, Eng benefited from a Safety Car intervention to retrieve the stranded R-Motorsport Aston Martins of Daniel Juncadella and Jake Dennis. The Safety Car wound the field in for five laps and enabled Eng, who along with a clutch of other drivers had already completed his mandatory mid-race stop, to narrow the gap to the leaders.

At the restart, the Austrian also overtook his fellow BMW driver Joel Eriksson (SWE), the decisive maneuver of the race, moved past Rene Rast and established a small but critical lead at the front.

I’m probably the happiest person in the world!" said Eng afterwards. “I’m so glad to be in the DTM, so happy to be racing for BMW. Winning is simply fantastic. This is the scenario I’ve always dreamt of. However, reality is much better than the dream by far – although the last five, six laps felt as long as a 24-hour race! There was some luck involved as well, but I reckon we deserved this win."

For Eng’s squad, BMW Team RBM, victory in the third race of the current DTM season was also a much-celebrated home win. The team, run by Bart Mampaey, is based in Mechelen, only 72 kilometers from Zolder.

After a lengthy battle to fend off the advances of Mueller, runner-up Eriksson commented: “That was one of the most difficult races of my life. I didn’t make any mistakes, but, towards the end, Nico put me under massive pressure. Luckily, I was able to keep him at bay – even though, towards the end, my tires were worn considerably."

Mueller added: “Overtaking around here is really difficult. I tried to keep the pressure up until the end, but I was struggling with tire degradation myself in the closing stages. Still, we can be really happy with the result."

Behind BMW’s Eng and Eriksson, Audi’s Nico Muller (SUI) came third, while Aston Martin scored points with eighth and ninth place for Paul Di Resta (GBR) and Ferdinand von Habsburg (AUT).

Race 1 Results

Race 2 Results

Driver Standings