“I still can’t believe it,” said the 32-year-old German, who only found out that he won the title as early as in the season’s third from last race from his race engineer on team radio after crossing the finish line. “What a year! We were extremely strong nearly everywhere. Clinching the title even before the last race weekend is incredible. Team Rosberg, which did a fantastic job, has a really big part in this. And Audi of course: the Audi RS 5 DTM has been the best car this year with the best turbo engine.”
“We didn’t expect to win the championship so early and, above all, not in such a dominant way,” said Head of Audi Motorsport Dieter Gass, after Audi had taken the top seven spots in Sunday’s race. “René (Rast) is now a two-time DTM Champion – and deservedly so in every respect. He’s shown an impressive season. Congratulations to him, to his team, but also to the whole Audi family. ‘Thank you’ to all who made this outstanding success possible: It’s fantastic to work with such a great team! Today, we’re going to have a big party. And afterwards, we’ll look forward to the finale at Hockenheim together with the cars from the Japanese Super GT. That’s going to be another absolute highlight.”
Following his victory on Saturday, Rast, with second place in qualifying – just one thousandth of a second behind Jamie Green – and third position in the race scored exactly the number of points he need for his early title win. Before the last two rounds, the driver from Audi Sport Team Rosberg has an unreachable 56-point advantage over his closest rival, Nico Müller, from Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline.
After a sensor defect in qualifying, Müller started from 14th position. In his 100th DTM race, the Swiss fought back to the fifth spot before losing one position and along with it his last chance for the title shortly before the end of the race. “I pitted early and in the end was struggling with my tires,” said Müller. “After qualifying, it was clear that it would be a difficult race for us. Sixth place was the maximum. Unfortunately, the title race has now been decided. I’m happy for René and Audi, who did a great job and deserve the title. But of course I’d have liked postponing the title decision to the finale at Hockenheim.”