Monday, August 19, 2013

DTM: Audi DTM director Dieter Gass rejects BMW allegations


By Tarek Ramchani

Following the eventful Nürburgring DTM race there were some protests from BMW Motorsport regarding Audi's behaviour during the race.

At BMW they believe that Audi drivers ruined Bruno Spengler's race with hard contact on track. The Canadian had many moments of contact with Audi RS 5 DTM cars during the race. Spengler finished the race in fourteenth place, no points and the gap between himself and the series leader, Mike Rockenfeller, increased up to 39 points.

"More or less every Audi drove into me today, so car was really damaged on its left side after the first lap. I won’t say it’s intentional, but you have to look at the facts. It was aggressive again, a bit like stock-car. To be honest, I think it was a little bit over the limit, as this is the second time I finished with half a car in two races." More about BMW Motorsport's reactions, including quotes from Bruno Spengler and BMW Motorsport director Mr. Jens Marquardt, can be seen at TouringCarTimes here.


At Audi there has of course been a reaction to this. DTM director at Audi Sport, Mr. Dieter Gass, clearly denied any strategy to harm Bruno Spengler, rejecting any accusation that the Audi Sport teams deliberately asked their drivers to block the Canadian's progress.

"We have our race drivers and they’re paid to race, not give positions away. You saw today that they were fighting very hard and very fair with each other; almost as hard as as they were with Bruno. I don’t think I saw anything unfair manouevers, though." More about Mr Dieter Gass' reactions can be seen at TouringCarTimes here.

Special thanks to our friend George East at TouringCarTimes.com. You can follow him on Twitter here at @MrGeorgeEast

Photo credit: Audi Media