For the first time in the 2020 season, DTM races are held outside of Germany. This weekend the drivers are competing with the Dutch Assen, which turns out to be a good change for Robert Kubica. Although the Saturday qualifying did not indicate it (the Pole was 15th), the race, and especially its end, were already very promising. The Cracovian finished 10th, scoring the first point in his career, and if not for the mechanics problem in the pit lane, he could have been even higher.
– Congratulations on tenth place is a bit of exaggeration, but better tenth than nothing. Looking at the starting point, and we weren’t even able to race at Lausitzring, we are definitely faster here. I would even say that the positive thing is not this one point, but the pace in the race – said Kubica after Saturday’s race.
On Sunday Kubica also counted on points, which confirmed a good performance in qualifying. The Pole finished them in tenth position, and the loss to the winner, Rene Rasta, was not as big as in the first races of the season. In addition, only two BMW drivers were faster than the Pole.
The heavy rain heralded the emotions in the race. For this reason, the start of the competition was delayed by 10 minutes, and then the drivers started the race behind the safety car. Later, the judges decided that the competition would be restarted and the drivers would start from the starting fields.
Soon after the start, Kubica moved up to ninth place, and his loss to Jonathan Aberdein ahead of him was less than one second. Already on the seventh lap, the Pole made a pit stop and returned to the track in the last, 16th place. Then he overtook Jamie Green, then Marco Wittmann, and then his place hovered around 14 – depending on whether any of his immediate rivals were going to box.
The Pole managed to move up to 11th place later and Ferdinand Habsburg was only one and a half seconds away. On Lap 23, Fabio Scherer hit the boards and crashed a car. The rookie was driving on a wet track on smooth tires, so his crash was just a matter of time. A safety car appeared on the track and then the race was abandoned.
After removing the crashed car, the drivers left the original starting grid, and had just over 11 minutes to finish the competition. Mike Rockenfeller quickly overtook Kubica and did not return the 11th place. Then Green, Aberdein and Kubica had to be satisfied with the 14th place.
The loss of the Cracovian to the winner of Sheldon van der Linde was 17.863 seconds. For the South African driver it is the first victory in his career. Saturday’s winner Robin Frijns (+2.621) came second, followed by Nico Mueller (+3.658).
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