António Félix da Costa wins second DTM race at Zandvoort

At the first DTM race weekend of the season outside Germany, the pilots competing for the Munich automobile manufacturer proved unbeatable on the dune circuit in the Netherlands. After Marco Wittmann won race one on Saturday at the wheel of his BMW M4 DTM, his brand colleague António Félix da Costa followed suit on Sunday and celebrated his first victory in the most popular international touring car series.

Despite the aggressive track surface at Zandvoort, the race tires supplied by premium manufacturer Hankook suffered hardly any deterioration and impressed with their usual high consistency.
 
For António Félix da Costa (BMW), the Zandvoort round of the DTM was as good as perfect. After scoring second at the first contest on Saturday, the Portuguese racer took off into race two on Sunday from pole position and celebrated a convincing lights-to-flag victory. Trailing the 23-year-old over the finish line in positions two to five were his brand colleagues Augusto Farfus, Bruno Spengler, Timo Glock and Marco Wittmann.
 
Pascal Wehrlein was once again the best Mercedes-Benz pilot in sixth place, with Mattias Ekström pocketing the most points for Audi with seventh place. His brand colleague Jamie Green went home empty-handed from Zandvoort and leads the overall classification by just five points over Sweden’s Ekström and Pascal Wehrlein in third. The top BMW pilot in the drivers’ classification is Bruno Spengler on sixth.
 
The race tire of the exclusive DTM partner Hankook delivered a strong performance over the entire DTM race weekend at Zandvoort. At the hot race on Saturday and the cooler Sunday meeting, the Ventus Race rubber offered the usual high level of grip and, thanks to its reliability, enabled drivers and teams to stick to their individual race strategies. Hankook’s race engineer Thomas Baltes commented: “With track temperatures of 26 degrees, our race tire hardly deteriorated at all on Sunday. BMW could keep their rivals at bay, but Audi and Mercedes also enjoyed a good race and treated spectators to a gripping show right to the end. On the most challenging DTM circuit for tires, our slick performed perfectly.”
 
The Audi Sport Team Abt achieved the fastest pit stop in 21.884 seconds. The winning crew receives three crates of beer at the next race weekend at Spielberg in Austria. Moreover, they earn 25 points towards the overall classification towards the Best Pit Stop Award from Hankook. At the end of the season, the exclusive tire partner of the DTM rewards the crew with the highest points tally with a challenge trophy and a lavish team barbecue.
 
António Félix da Costa (BMW): “My first stint in the race was short and ran perfectly in terms of the tires. After the change I took it a little easier on the tires, but they worked well and did a great job.”
 
Augusto Farfus (BMW): “Hankook’s race tires coped with the toughest DTM track of the season really well. Over the entire race distance they proved extremely consistent and hardly degraded at all. I’m very happy with them and it can continue like this.”