René Rast closes championship gap with race one win at Zolder

René Rast closed the gap to DTM points leader Nico Müller with his third win of the season in race one at Zolder, as title rivals Robin Frijns and Müller completed the podium.

Rast claimed a comfortable lights-to-flag win in the opening race in Belgium as the Audi driver was never troubled at any stage in the race.

Romping clear at the start, behind the German BMW’s Timo Glock lost out from his front row starting position, being passed by both Frijns and Mike Rockenfeller in the first couple of turns.

Frijns then found himself falling away from Rast over the opening laps, before then losing out to Glock after his pitstop when the German passed him for second on lap 18, with Frijns, on colder tyres, forced to cut the chicane as a result.

However, with his tyres up to temperature, just six laps later Frijns re-claimed second from Glock, although by this stage he was over seven seconds behind Rast.

Points leader Müller was third, after the Swiss staged an impressive recovery drive, having qualified in just seventh.

Making up one place at the start, Müller ran in sixth in the early phase of the race, but after the pit stops he was up to fourth after jumping WRT’s Harrison Newey and gaining when Mike Rockenfeller had a very slow stop due to an issue with the air jack on his car.

Müller then passed Glock for third with a bold move nine laps from the end, going around the outside at the final chicane to claim his tenth podium of the year.

Glock was the best BMW driver in fourth, dropping back from Müller by 13 seconds in the final quarter of the race, ahead of Newey in fifth, the Brit easily having his best race of the season thus far.

Sheldon van der Linde was sixth, despite the BMW driver dropping back to 13^th at the start from sixth on the grid after a poor first few turns.

WRT’s Ferdinand von Habsburg claimed seventh, ahead of the recovering Rockenfeller in eighth.

The top ten was completed by BMW’s Philipp Eng and Audi’s Loïc Duval, the latter having passed the BMW of Lucas Auer for the final point just two laps from the end.

Marco Wittmann had been running in fifth but the BMW driver reported an issue with shifting down the gears on lap 34, resulting in the two-time champion retiring to the pits.

Jamie Green also stopped after 29 laps, the Brit having earlier made contact whilst battling with Eng.

Rast’s 20^th career victory moves him to 34 points from the championship lead, whilst Frijns outscored Müller to close the gap to 14 points for the Dutchman.

Race result

POS	NO	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	33	René RAST		Audi Sport Team Rosberg	Audi RS5 DTM	41	56:57.127	1:20.815	1
2	4	Robin FRIJNS		Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline	Audi RS5 DTM	41	18.855	1:20.973	3
3	51	Nico MÜLLER		Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline	Audi RS5 DTM	41	25.576	1:20.904	7
4	16	Timo GLOCK		BMW Team RMG	BMW M4 DTM	41	38.513	1:21.067	2
5	10	Harrison NEWEY		Audi Sport Team WRT	Audi RS5 DTM	41	39.071	1:21.108	8
6	31	Sheldon VAN DER LINDE		BMW Team RBM	BMW M4 DTM	41	43.685	1:21.391	6
7	62	Ferdinand VON HABSBURG		Audi Sport Team WRT	Audi RS5 DTM	41	44.926	1:21.519	12
8	99	Mike ROCKENFELLER		Audi Sport Team Phoenix	Audi RS5 DTM	41	45.471	1:21.373	5
9	25	Philipp ENG		BMW Team RBM	BMW M4 DTM	41	48.480	1:21.686	11
10	28	Loïc DUVAL		Audi Sport Team Phoenix	Audi RS5 DTM	41	1:03.707	1:21.681	10
11	27	Jonathan ABERDEIN		BMW Team RMR	BMW M4 DTM	41	1:05.222	1:21.668	14
12	22	Lucas AUER		BMW Team RMR	BMW M4 DTM	41	1:06.205	1:21.831	9
13	13	Fabio SCHERER		Audi Sport Team WRT	Audi RS5 DTM	41	1:12.156	1:21.609	16
14	8	Robert KUBICA		BMW Team ART	Audi RS5 DTM	40	+ 1 LAP	1:21.412	15
R	11	Marco WITTMANN		BMW Team RMG	BMW M4 DTM	34	DNF	1:20.900	4
R	53	Jamie GREEN		Audi Sport Team Rosberg	Audi RS5 DTM	29	DNF	1:21.139	13