Audi: Added weight despite no top result "extremely annoying"
Audi's head of motorsports Dieter Gass is unhappy his DTM team will be 10kg heavier on Sunday at the Hungaroring despite not achieving a strong result on Saturday.
Photo by: Alexander Trienitz
Audi dominated the Saturday action in Hungary by locking out the top five and taking seventh with its six cars in qualifying, and was also looking to control the race in similar fashion.
However, a well-timed safety car phase allowed three early-pitting non-Audi drivers - Paul di Resta (Mercedes), Timo Glock (BMW) and Bruno Spengler (Mercedes) to jump ahead and steal the top three.
That forced Audi to settle for the highest finish of fourth with Mike Rockenfeller's car.
Having a clear pace advantage, Audi will be 10kg heavier than BMW and Mercedes on Sunday, and the fact Audi will have to take the penalty despite missing the podium is "extremely annoying", according to Gass.
"Some of our advantage we're going to lose most likely, because we will have more weight in the car," Gass told Motorsport.com.
"[This] is extremely annoying because if you had the fastest car and you don't get the big points but you have to put weight on your car it is really annoying."
Gass says that while it was unlucky to miss out on a victory, it was also a mistake from Audi not to stop with those who changed tyres early.
"We were really strong today, we made one mistake by not stopping after the first cars have been stopping because that caught us out by the safety car," he admitted.
"Other than that we were just a bit unlucky."
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