Audi’s Hockenheimring poleman Timo Scheider has admitted that he had an agreement with BMW’s Augusto Farfus to work together to drive away from the field.
At the start of the race Scheider and Farfus got clean starts to lead, with both drivers starting on the option tyre. The Brazilian then passed the German through the Parabolika and into the Spitzkehre on the fourth lap of the race. The following lap saw the safety car brought out due to the car fire of Adrien Tambay, and Scheider admits at this moment he and his team made the wrong call.
“I had a good start,” said Scheider. “Due to the tyre situation Augusto (Farfus) and I were in agreement: We were going to use the opportunity to drive away from the field. When the DRS was active he overtook me. Afterward, I wanted to use the DRS but then the safety car period came and we didn’t make the right decision in terms of timing the pit stop. Decisions like these are made within fractions of a second.”
Scheider eventually went on to finish in sixth as the top Audi driver, with only Mike Rockenfeller also able to make it into the top ten for the Ingolstadt-based manufacturer.At one stage following his pit stops, Scheider found himself down in 18th and had to fight back through the field in a race defined by varying strategies. Despite Audi’s tumultuous start, he still believes a victory was possible.
“We could have probably clinched a podium or victory today,” added Scheider. “When you look at how good our speed was toward the end that’s pretty painful.”
Dieter Gass, Audi’s Head of DTM praised Scheider for his comeback drive into the points and echoed Scheider’s view that at least a podium finish was possible.
“Particularly frustrating – and a shame – was the fact that we didn’t call Timo (Scheider) into the pits right on the first lap of the safety car, which deprived him of a possible podium finish,” said Gass.
“That he was able to recover from 18th all the way to sixth place by achieving strong lap times shows that more would have been possible today.”