Turbulent test day in Spielberg in preparation for the DTM title decision and the penultimate weekend in the season: Schubert BMW pilot Rene Rast crashed from frontal in the target curve shortly after 2:20 p.m. and damaged the left front of the BMW M4 GT3 EVO. The three-time DTM champion got away unharmed-and was already on the box when his racing car was delivered from the tow truck behind the Schubert Box.
Bitter for Rast, who has to catch up in the title fight: The important test day ended prematurely for the veteran after only ten laps in the afternoon. How did it come about? “We have to look at that first,” the 38-year-old gives a short answer when asked by Motorsport-Total.com. BMW customer sports director Björn Lellmann excludes a driving error and names a “technical problem” as the cause.
However, the parts must first be analyzed to find out exactly what happened. Rast also triggered a red flag with his accident. However, it was not the only one of the test day in which 13 DTM pilot took part, because the pylons, which, like on the DTM weekend, mark the track limits in the last two curves had to be reorganized again and again.
Excitement for new Lamborghini classification
Rasts Crash, who, by the way, passed in the same place as with teammate Marco Wittmann a year ago, was not the only excitement of the test day: because the Lamborghini team Grasser Racing, which has its team seat not far from the Red Bull ring and this year fights for the title in third place, was forced, forced, different flooring at the Huracan GT3 Trying EVO2.
The background: The SRO Motorsports Group, responsible for the Balance of Performance (BOP) in the DTM at the GT World Challenge Europe at the Nürburgring, had set the minimum vehicle height of the car – similar to early 2024 at the Porsche – on the front axle, which has a negative impact on the aerodynamics and the cornering speeds.
And also in the BOP for the ADAC GT Masters on the Salzburgring, which will also be created by the SRO, the changed vehicle height can be found again: the Lamborghini must be used there on the front axle with 105 instead of 70 millimeters, while the 128 millimeters on the rear axle remain the same.
The classification for the DTM weekend in one and a half weeks on the Red Bull ring has not yet been determined, but the Grasser team fears a repetition. “Of course we have to deal with the topic,” says Gottfried Grasser. “It would be a mistake to hope that it will stay the same as at the Sachsenring.” Because the measure also throws the current set-up path over the heap.
Ben Dörr drives McLaren best time: What is time worth?
Pepper’s deployment car, which the title candidate shared with Luca Engstler, landed in ninth place in the test. The fastest Grasser period was driven by the South African, which ranks over half a second behind McLaren pilot Ben Dörr. The youngster drove shortly before the end of the test day, where it was only raining briefly at the beginning of the afternoon session, in 1: 27,986 best time.
Comtoyou-Aston-Martin-Pilot Gilles Magnus was only 0.018 seconds slower with his best time from the morning. The Belgian troop never drove in Spielberg and was correspondingly satisfied. “We just don’t know what the others are doing,” grins sports director Kris Nissen. Because in the private test there is no binding BOP, so everyone drives according to their own criteria.
Third came Emil-Frey-Ferrari-Pilot Thierry Vermeulen, who recorded a ride into the gravel in the morning before the two Schubert BMW pilots Wittmann and Rast followed in places four and five. The sixth was the second Dörr McLaren pilot with Timo Glock.
Fabio Scherer, whose Ford team HRT was awarded an additional day for new manufacturers despite the exhausted test contingent, was given eighth place-so that the BOP-responsible data from the Mustang GT3 in Spielberg can also win. At the end of the DTM field consisting of twelve racing cars, the two Landgrave Mercedes from DTM-Leader Lucas Auer and his young team-mate Tom Kalende ranks, who was the most busy man of the day with 141 rounds.
How to assess times? With his 1: 27,986 tenth more than Rasts qualifying record (1: 27,671) from 2023, Dörr was even even faster on Friday Emil-Frey-Ferrari-Pilot Jack Aitken, who is in the Auers Schärfste pursuer and tested a little earlier for reasons of time. The Briton, which – as you hear – focused primarily on qualifying came to a 1: 27,557.
Private DTM test day on September 2 in Spielberg
1. Ben Dörr (Dörr-McLaren) 1: 27.986 (108)
2. Gilles Magnus (Comtoyou-Aston-Martin) 1: 28.004 (122)
3. Thierry Vermeulen (Emil-Frey-Ferrari) 1: 28.157 (93)
4. Marco Wittmann (Schubert-BMW) 1: 28.188 (123)
5. Rene Rast (Schubert-BMW) 1: 28.205 (82)
6. Timo Glock (Dörr-McLaren) 1: 28.282 (76)
7. Ben Green (Emil-Frey-Ferrari) 1: 28.360 (120)
8. Fabio Scherer (HRT-Ford) 1: 28.502 (115)
9. Jordan Pepper/Luca Engstler (Grasser-Lamborghini) 1: 28.525 (117)
10. Nicolas Baert (Comtoyou-Aston-Martin) 1: 28.558 (136)
11. Lucas Auer (Landgraf-Mercedes) 1: 28.574 (99)
12. Tom calendar (Landgraf-Mercedes) 1: 28.640 (141)