Further progressions have been made by Audi Sport over the race weekend in Hungary, with Nico Müller and Mike Rockenfeller providing the best results for the Ingolstadt brand over the last two races.
But a deficit of 135 points to BMW Motorsport in the constructors’ standings is something that head of Audi Motorsport Dieter Gass is wanting to reduce significantly, after the first two weekends saw the brand struggle against the competition.
“The situation was difficult for all drivers because they didn’t know what conditions to expect in the pit lane,” said Gass, explaining about the situation in the pitlane that saw Rockenfeller take advantage of an early pitstop.
“Due to the red flag, everyone who hadn’t pitted yet was no longer in contention. In the end, Mike Rockenfeller still scored a fourth place. That’s not bad but, after yesterday, we had higher expectations.
“The most important thing is that, fortunately, it looks like the consequences of the accidents in the pit lane weren’t as grave as had to be feared initially.”
Rockenfeller felt that in light of the pit lane incidents, his charge towards Philipp Eng in the dying stages of the race to fight for the final podium spot was ‘completely secondary.’
“This was a crazy race,” said the 2013 DTM Champion, started from 16th on the grid
“The pictures of the accidents in the pit lane looked horrible. The last thing we want is for someone to get injured. I hope the victims weren’t hurt as badly as things looked at the first moment. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for them!”
Apart from Rockenfeller, no other drivers from the marque managed to get into the top ten, following the lengthy delay via the red-flag stoppage, which saw Audi only pick up 12 points from the Team Phoenix driver’s performance.