The Aston Martin Vantage DTM scores a points hat-trick on the DTM’s return to Zolder: Clever tactics enable both Paul Di Resta and Ferdinand von Habsburg to finish in the Top Ten.
A mere two weeks after the Aston Martin Vantage DTM’s successful first race outing at Hockenheim, R-Motorsport competed their second race weekend in the touring car series at the Circuit Zolder. For the DTM this is also means a return to the venue where the very first DTM race was held in 1984.
R-Motorsport’s four drivers were on the second half of the grid for the DTM’s return to Belgium and used what was only the third race since joining the DTM to gain more experience with the Aston Martin Vantage DTM which first made its track debut at the beginning of March.
Paul Di Resta (33, Great Britain) came into the pits after the first lap to complete his mandatory stop. He reacted with lightning speed on Lap 15 and used a safety car period to pit once again for fresh tyres. In the end, he crossed the line in eighth place, taking points in Race 2 for the second time in a row.
Ferdinand von Habsburg (21, Austria) came home right behind him in ninth place to secure his first points in the DTM. Like Paul, the rookie had made his mandatory stop at an early stage, coming in after only two laps. Ferdinand’s mechanics had already had plenty to keep them occupied before the first qualifying session on Saturday morning when they had to change the engine in the Austrian driver’s car. Not a task to be undertaken lightly, but they worked perfectly as a team and mastered the challenge with time to spare. The reward for their efforts, the first points in Ferdinand’s DTM career.
Unfortunately for Jake Dennis (23, Great Britain) and Daniel Juncadella (28, Spain), their race was over after 14 laps. Daniel came to a halt at the side of the track with a technical problem, and Jake had to park up shortly after, stopped by a defect.
The team’s next race is scheduled for this Sunday. First, though, there’s the second qualifying session of the weekend at 10:25 am (live on ran.de). The fourth race of the season will then start as usual at 1.30 pm (live on SAT.1 from 1.00 pm onwards).
Comments after the race
Paul Di Resta
Qualifying: P17
Race: P8
Start number: 03
Car: Aston Martin Vantage DTM
“We deployed a different strategy today, which paid off. For sure, it was a difficult race again, but we will keep fighting and pull out all the stops, trying perhaps to do extraordinary things in order to achieve good results until we can fight further up front off our own backs. Many thanks to the team again. They were on the ball today and to be honest, we maximised what we could from it. Tomorrow is obviously another day and it looks like conditions will be mixed, but for now, I think we can be happy that we scored points again.”
Ferdinand von Habsburg
Qualifying: P18
Race: P9
Start number: 62
Car: Aston Martin Vantage DTM
“It feels good to have scored my first points in the DTM. I’m also mega happy for the team, who have worked so hard to give me such a great car. I can’t begin to tell you how pleased I am with these two points. It’s great that we managed to achieve a top-ten finish thanks to our clever tactics. It makes the DTM a whole lot of fun.”
Jake Dennis
Qualifying: P13
Race: DNF
Start number: 76
Car: Aston Martin Vantage DTM
“The break-down was a bit of a strange issue. I just lost all power as I turned into the pit lane, which meant, unfortunately, that I could not continue. It’s obviously a real shame that Dani and me both broke down at the same time.”
Daniel Juncadella
Qualifying: P15
Race: DNF
Start number: 23
Car: Aston Martin Vantage DTM
“It’s a real shame, because I made an excellent start and had a really good first lap. The car worked really well until I lost power and had to park up. That was rotten luck today, unfortunately.”
Dr Florian Kamelger, R-Motorsport Team Principal
“A race full of ups and downs. We still have to find out what caused Dani’s and Jake’s breakdowns. As you can imagine, we’re really pleased with Paul’s four points and the first two points for Ferdinand. We were again able to finish twice in the Top Ten thanks to great tactics by our pit crew. As regards to the two retirements, you have to bear in mind that every race is a test drive for us at the moment, since we have not been able to cover enough test kilometres in the short development time available and have thus not been in a position to avoid problems in the races. I would like to thank everyone in the engineering team for working nonstop without any down-time on the development of our Aston Martin Vantage DTM vehicles in recent weeks and months.”