08 Oct Strong fourth place for Dev Gore
It was a chaotic 15th race of the DTM 2002 that took place today at the 4.574 kilometers long Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg. An accident caused a safety car period during the first lap, followed by two more collisions after the restart. Race control interrupted the race with the red flag and continued it after a break of more than half an hour. Just before the interruption, Dev Gore, one of the two Team Rosberg drivers, completed his mandatory pit stop, which brought him further up the field once the race had resumed. The American even held the lead for a few laps but was relegated to fourth place during the final kilometers – up to now his second-best DTM result after finishing second in Imola. His Swiss teammate Nico Müller finished eighth.
Dev Gore: “The beginning was quite crazy, but we were able to complete my mandatory pit stop at the perfect time. After that, I was the virtual leader and concentrated on driving a clean race. Unfortunately, my tyres worsened a lot towards the end, so it became increasingly difficult to leave the competitors behind me. I also made a small mistake, which Lucas Auer took advantage of and passed me. Even without the mistake, it would not have been easy to defend first place, but at least I could have had the chance to fight for it. I actually find it a bit disappointing that I ended up fourth, considering that more was possible.”
Nico Müller: “This race was chaotic. I was very lucky that I was able to continue at all after the interruption. My car suffered damages from some contacts and I also had a flat tyre, but the team got my Audi back on track during the break. After the restart, I did a long first stint, which was fine; with the second set of tyres, on the other hand, I had a lot of trouble going at a decent pace. At least, I was able to finish eighth with a few points.”
Kimmo Liimatainen (team principal): “It was a turbulent race in which Nico could not do much better than eighth place. Dev led the race with a perfectly coordinated strategy, but his tyres did not allow him to do better than fourth in the end. However, that are of course valuable points for him and for the team, which we are very happy about.”