Joel Eriksson followed up his maiden DTM victory with a strong run to sixth place as the German-based touring car series resumed at the Nürburgring this weekend.
Eriksson, who became the second-youngest DTM race winner in history last time out at Misano a fortnight ago, extended his 2018 tally with another eight championship points in the final race of the meeting in Germany’s Eifel mountains.
The 20-year-old BMW racer started the race in question from tenth on the grid following a gripping qualifying session, which featured incredible competition and saw the full 18-car field covered by less than eight tenths of a second around the Nürburgring Sprint course.
Eriksson, having lapped a mere 0.4s off pole in qualifying, held his position in the midfield over the opening stint of the race, but then strung together a sequence of quick laps around the time of his compulsory pit stop, allowing him to leapfrog several rivals.
He made up an additional place when Mercedes’ title contender Gary Paffett suffered a slow tyre change, although Paffett eventually battled his way back through to take fifth.
Sixth place at the flag still marked a very strong effort for Eriksson, who came home just 7.8 seconds behind winner René Rast (Audi) in a high-intensity race that ran uninterrupted from start to finish.
Eriksson finished as the top rookie, with the five drivers ahead of him – Rast, Paul di Resta (Mercedes), Marco Wittmann (BMW), Bruno Spengler (BMW) and Paffett – all having clinched the DTM title at least once in their careers.
“It was a really good weekend, especially the final race today,” says Joel Eriksson. ”Our pace was great, up there with the quickest. The first stint went well, I managed the tyres as I’d planned, and then we unleashed everything we had before the pit stop. The guys did a fantastic stop, too: we were the fastest. I tried to overtake Gary Paffett in the final stint, but it just wasn’t possible. However, moving up from tenth to sixth is a great result in this field and we scored some important points in the process.”
In the opening race of the weekend on Saturday, also won by Rast, Eriksson finished 12th.
The penultimate DTM round of the season takes place at Austria’s Red Bull Ring on September 21-23. The Styrian Grand Prix track has yielded some of Joel Eriksson’s fondest memories in motorsport, including his very first car racing victory in 2014 and an emphatic double win in Formula 3 last year.
RESULTS (top five)
DTM | Round 8
Nürburgring (Germany)
Race 1
1: René Rast (GER), Audi, 40 laps
2: Bruno Spengler (CAN), BMW, +0.862s
3: Gary Paffett (GBR), Mercedes, +6.862s
4: Timo Glock (GER), BMW, +7.277s
5: Marco Wittmann (GER), BMW, +10.048s
—
12: Joel Eriksson (SWE), BMW, +43.488s
Race 2
1: René Rast (GER), Audi, 40 laps
2: Paul di Resta (GBR), Mercedes, +2.739s
3: Marco Wittmann (GER), BMW, +3.439s
4: Bruno Spengler (CAN), BMW, +5.643s
5: Gary Paffett (GBR), Mercedes, +7.177s
—
6: Joel Eriksson (SWE), BMW, +7.862s
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS (top five)
DTM | After 16/20 races
1: Gary Paffett (GBR), Mercedes, 206 p.
2: Paul di Resta (GBR), Mercedes, 204 p.
3: René Rast (GER), Audi, 149 p.
4: Edoardo Mortara (ITA), Mercedes, 138 p.
5: Marco Wittmann (GER), BMW, 137 p.
—
11: Joel Eriksson (SWE), BMW, 60 p.
