Spectacular racing at the Circuit Zolder: Jake Dennis secures his first points in the DTM in the Aston Martin Vantage DTM.
R-Motorsport again gained valuable experience with the new car and secured points in both races during the second DTM race weekend at Zolder in Belgium. The second rookie in the team, Jake Dennis, took maiden points in the DTM on Sunday following Paul Di Resta’s and Ferdinand von Habsburg’s success in securing points for the team on Saturday. After the first four races of the season, all four R-Motorsport drivers have now finished in the Top Ten at least once.
Jake Dennis (23, Great Britain) was 13th on the grid for the start of what was only his fourth DTM race. The newcomer to the series put in a long first stint and used the safety car deployment to come in for his mandatory pit stop on Lap 22. Over the final laps, he then had a whole series of spectacular scraps with rivals in Audis and BMWs to ultimately finish sixth and secure his first eight points in the DTM. He also achieved the team’s best finish so far in their first season in the touring car series.
Daniel Juncadella (28, Spain) deployed a different strategy to his team-mates and came in for his mandatory pit stop after just one lap. He again used a safety car period shortly after the first half of the race to come in for fresh tyres on Lap 24. In the end, though, he had to retire his car in the pits after 28 laps.
Austrian driver Ferdinand von Habsburg (21, Austria) had planned to make his mandatory stop at a late stage but was unable to do so. After having scored his first points in the DTM on Saturday, he suffered a technical problem towards the middle of the race and had to retire.
The fourth driver in R-Motorsport’s squad had it tough on race day: Paul Di Resta (33, Great Britain) experienced some difficulties early on in the second qualifying session on Sunday morning and was unable to compete in the race due to an engine problem. Instead, the 2010 DTM champion was forced to watch from the pits along with the crew as his team-mates raced out on track.
Promising start to season for new Aston Martin Vantage DTM
Four races with points finishes. R-Motorsport have made a promising start to their very first season in the DTM at the first two race weekends of the year. The team again scored points in both races as the DTM returned to Zolder following their success in the opener at Hockenheim. However, the experience and data that the drivers and engineers gained from the two races at the Circuit Zolder will prove even more important and valuable than just the points.
The entire team’s performance is to be rated even higher in view of the fact that development and preparation time for the new Aston Martin Vantage DTM were unusually short. After only 90 days of development, the car was given its baptism of fire during testing at Jerez de la Frontera in early March, exactly two months before its first race outing at the start of May in Hockenheim.
As you would imagine, the team are focused on one thing primarily in the early stages of this project, to post as many laps and kilometres as possible in order to gain greater knowledge of the new car, its handling, setup and reliability. The team will get the next opportunity for “test outings under race conditions” in three weeks’ time when the DTM circus moves on to Italy. The third race weekend of the 2019 season will take place there from 7th – 9th June at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli.
Comments after the race
Jake Dennis
Qualifying: P13
Race: P6
Start number: 76
Car: Aston Martin Vantage DTM
“My first points in only my fourth race. That is a great way to finish my second race weekend in the DTM. We knew we could do well in this race with our strategy. I managed to maintain my tyres on the first stint, as I had to drive a long time on them and then had a fresh set left for the sprint to the finish. No DRS made life pretty difficult for me in the closing stages, unfortunately. The guys behind chasing me still had it, so I was happy to take the chequered flag in P6.”
Daniel Juncadella
Qualifying: P16
Race: DNF
Start number: 23
Car: Aston Martin Vantage DTM
“We opted for an early pit stop today when deciding strategy, as it worked well for Paul yesterday. I changed tyres again after the safety car deployment but had problems with the brakes, unfortunately, and drove straight on and into the gravel trap. I then returned to the pits and was forced to retire the car.”
Ferdinand von Habsburg
Qualifying: P17
Race: DNF
Start number: 62
Car: Aston Martin Vantage DTM
“Being forced to retire today is a pain, but it wasn’t the team’s fault. Our strategy would have worked, apparently, as it enabled Jake to score points. Too bad, because after yesterday’s result, I would have liked to notch up a few more points. But that’s motor racing, sometimes you’re lucky, sometimes you’re unlucky. The important thing as a team is that we learn from it in order to do improve in the future.”
Paul Di Resta
Qualifying: P18
Race: DNS
Start number: 03
Car: Aston Martin Vantage DTM
“Unfortunately, we had an engine problem in qualifying. As a consequence, I couldn’t start the race. These things happen in motorsport. When you push to the limit, sometimes weaknesses appear. We’re learning more with every single day on the track and it’s good that we can find and fix such problems. Given our situation, every race is a new test for us. Of course, it’s a pity that I couldn’t start today, but we scored points yesterday and had a good weekend at Hockenheim too, so I’m pretty certain that we’ll come back stronger next time.”
Dr Florian Kamelger, R-Motorsport Team Principal
“Jake showed amazing fighting spirit today and achieved what was possible in sixth. Excellent pit stop timing helped him with that. We saw from the race that we still need time to make our technology package a success, as Paul had technical problems, unfortunately, and couldn’t start. Ferdinand and Dani also had issues which we have not yet had chance to look at. We still lack development time, but we intend to work our way forwards together, step by step.”