Budapest/Hungary, 18th June 2017 – René Rast won’t be forgetting this day in a hurry. The 30-year-old from Minden, located between Hanover and Bielefeld, delivered a very strong performance in the DTM race in Budapest on Sunday. After clinching pole position in the Audi RS5 DTM in the morning, the DTM newcomer celebrated a commanding victory. The key to success was an optimum start and the great handling of the Hankook race tyre Ventus Race. The win sees Rast take the overall lead of the DTM, with a one-point lead over Mercedes-Benz driver Lucas Auer, who returned his car to the pit on lap 23, and Jamie Green (Audi), who finished fifth.

Swede Mattias Ekström started from third place and was fitted with new Hankook tyres on the third lap. Strong as ever, Ekström was among the frontrunners with the Ventus Race, and finished the sixth DTM race of the year in second place.

An incredible catch-up saw Belgium’s Maxime Martin make it onto the podium after 35 race laps. Starting almost without hope from the back of the grid, Martin changed his tyres on the first lap and ultimately fought his way into third place.

“In the sixth DTM race, the Hankook Ventus Race once again demonstrated that it offers drivers and teams various strategy options for success. When you see that Maxime Martin was able to push for 34 laps with the tyre, it is great proof of the high performance of our Ventus Race,” said Manfred Sandbichler, Hankook Motorsport Director Europe.

The Audi Sport Team Phoenix achieved the fastest pit stop at the Hungaroring, with a time of 31.380 seconds, which was awarded 25 points for the overall standings of the Best Pit Stop Award presented by Hankook. The winning crew will also receive the usual three crates of beer at the next DTM race weekend at the Norisring.

René Rast (Audi): “Naturally I am delighted with my first DTM win. The tyres were fantastic. I had two perfect sets of tyres and hardly any wear. It was great.”

Maxime Martin (BMW): “This catch-up race was crazy. The tyres really were much better than I expected. The team and I tried to manage the cars to an optimum, and it worked really well.”

Paul Di Resta (Mercedes-Benz): “Unfortunately, we weren’t aggressive enough today. The tyres performed better than we thought. But we weren’t able to make optimum use of that today.”