Tough day at the DTM office for the Comtoyou Racing team in Oschersleben

 

 

 

The Comtoyou Racing team suffered something of a reality check at the weekend after their pair of Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3’s suffered both misfortune on and off the track that put their double race winning exploits of last time a distant memory within the DTM Series.

Racing this time at Oschersleben within the fifth round of the German based series, the #007 car of Nicki Thiim and the #008 car of Nicolas Baert were hoping to continue the fine form that the Dane enjoyed last time out at the Norisring despite their cars being affected by the expected increase in Balance of performance base weight.

 

Early sessions lead to the obvious prediction coming true of nether car being competitive amongst its class of eighteen other runners as both drivers eventually qualified at the tail of the pack going into Saturday’s opening hour long, pit stop punctuated race.

Despite the hot and dry conditions, Baert would again be saddled with another puncture which the team this time elected not to repair and send him on his way but rather wait until race two on Sunday. Thiim, meanwhile, would do what Thiim does and push to the end where he would eventually recoup a P12 finish for at least a few championship points to add to his tally.

 

Race two would be affected by another bizarre situation on the wrong tyres being fitted to the wrong wheels (i.e. fronts onto rears and vice versa) which again left both cars this time at the very back of the grid.

Missing the rain that affected the ADAC GT4 Germany race, it was another frenetic start to the race as Thiim quickly moved up the order ahead of the pit window. Baert’s own misfortunes within the series would continue just after as his car suffered suspension failure, but he and his crew did at least earn themselves the fastest pit stop time for their efforts.

 

Thiim would eventually finish P13 at the end of race two together with the fastest lap of the race to again secure a handful of valuable championship points as the series moves onto the Nurburgring next time out in mid-August.

Photo credits - DTM