2020 Assen Race 2

2020 Assen Race 2
The Assen TT Circuit in 2020.
Race Information
Date	6 September 2020
No.	259
Event	DTM Assen 2020
Location	TT Circuit Assen Assen, Drenthe, Netherlands
Format	55 min + 1 Lap
Lap length	4.555 km (2.829 mi)
Distance	31 laps / 141.205 km (87.741 mi)
Qualifying Result
Pole Sitter	René Rast
Team	Audi Sport Team Rosberg
Time	1:22.976
Fastest Lap
Driver	Sheldon van der Linde
Team	BMW Team RBM
Time	1:35.854 on lap 15
Race Result
First	Second	Third
Sheldon van der Linde	Robin Frijns	Nico Müller
Winner Team	BMW Team RBM
Time	1:13:27.930
Race Guide
Previous		Next
2020 Assen Race 1		2020 Nürburg Race 1

The 2020 Assen Race 2, otherwise known as the 2020 DTM Assen Race 2, was the eighth race of the 2020 DMSB Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters Championship, staged at the TT Circuit Assen in Assen, Drenthe, Netherlands on 6 September 2020. The race would see Sheldon van der Linde sweep to a surprise victory in wet but drying conditions, as a heavy accident for Fabio Scherer caused the race to be interrupted by a red flag.

For the second race in succession qualifying would be completely dominated by Audi, as René Rast swept to pole position, 0.029s ahead of Race 1 pole sitter Loïc Duval. Robin Frijns and Nico Müller would share the second row, while Jonathan Aberdein was the only BMW pilot to break into the top seven, securing sixth between Mike Rockenfeller and the Team WRT Audi of Ferdinand von Habsburg.

Heavy rain would see the race start after two sighting laps behind the Safety Car, with Duval easing off of the second placed grid slot to secure the lead. Frijns would also duck around the #33 Audi of Rast to secure second, with the defending Champion slipping to third in the sights of title rival Müller.

The early laps saw Duval build a small two second lead, although as the circuit began to dry Frijns would close back onto the tail of the #28 Audi. On lap ten the Dutchman made his bid for the lead, breezing past Duval on the exit of the chicane and down the start/finish straight to move into first place.

With that Frijns was away, quickly building a three second lead as Duval fell to quick fire moves from Rast and Müller, as well as the lead BMW of Timo Glock. Indeed, the #16 BMW was thriving in the conditions, and would soon find itself elbowing its way past both Rast and Müller to go hunting down Frijns for the lead.

As Glock began to close down the Dutchman the pitstop phase began, although van der Linde had already made his stop and was storming up the order. Indeed, when Frijns stopped on lap 22 the #31 BMW was storming towards the final corner, and as Frijns rejoined he would find himself staring at the back of van der Linde's rear wing.

Frijns had one chance to secure the lead, although as he lined up his move the Safety Car was called, followed by a red flag. The source of the interruption would be Scherer, who crashed heavily and destroyed the front of his #13 Audi having made a gamble on using slicks on the drying circuit.

After a twenty minute interruption, in which the rain returned, the race resumed behind the Safety Car, with van der Linde released into the lead with six minutes left on the clock. The South African racer duly eased clear as Frijns and Müller squabbled for second, before Frijns finally broke clear from his teammate with a minute to go.

That settled the race, with van der Linde sweeping across the line two seconds clear to secure what was van der Linde's maiden victory, and only the second for BMW in 2020. Frijns and Müller duly completed the podium ahead of Duval, while Rast managed to get ahead of Glock to secure fifth ahead of his compatriot. von Habsburg was next up ahead of Marco Wittmann and Philipp Eng, with Lucas Auer completing the scorers in tenth.

Background

There were no changes to the TT Circuit Assen ahead of the second race of the weekend, although there were changes to the conditions with a significant threat of rain around the time that the race was expected to start.

Frijns Fortitude

Nico Müller had extended his lead in the Championship to 30 points after the seventh race, the Swiss ace having moved onto 149 points for the campaign. Robin Frijns, meanwhile, had moved into second to be his teammate's closest challenger, with defending Champion René Rast slipping to third a further twelve behind the Dutchman. Loïc Duval was next up ahead of Timo Glock, the best of the BMW pilots in fifth, while Robert Kubica's maiden point left Fabio Scherer as the only non-scorer.

In the Teams' Championship Audi Team Abt had seen their lead once again extend as they were the biggest scorers of the day for the seventh straight race, moving them onto 268 points. That left the German squad 114 points clear of Audi Team Rosberg in second, while Audi Team Phoenix had moved back into their ahead of BMW Team RMG. Audi, meanwhile, would still hold their commanding position in the Manufacturers' Championship, 279 points clear of BMW.

Entry List

The full entry list for the 2020 Assen Race 2 is displayed below:

2020 Assen Race 2 Entry List
No.	Name	Entrant	Constructor	Chassis	Engine	Livery
4	Robin Frijns	Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline	Audi	RS5 Turbo DTM	Audi RC8 TFSI 2.0l I4t
8	Robert Kubica	BMW Team ART Orlen	BMW	M4 Turbo DTM	BMW P48 Turbo 2.0l I4t
10	Harrison Newey	Audi Sport Team WRT	Audi	RS5 Turbo DTM	Audi RC8 TFSI 2.0l I4t
11	Marco Wittmann	BMW Team RMG	BMW	M4 Turbo DTM	BMW P48 Turbo 2.0l I4t
13	Fabio Scherer	Audi Sport Team WRT	Audi	RS5 Turbo DTM	Audi RC8 TFSI 2.0l I4t
16	Timo Glock	BMW Team RMG	BMW	M4 Turbo DTM	BMW P48 Turbo 2.0l I4t
22	Lucas Auer	BMW Team RMR	BMW	M4 Turbo DTM	BMW P48 Turbo 2.0l I4t
25	Philipp Eng	BMW Team RBM	BMW	M4 Turbo DTM	BMW P48 Turbo 2.0l I4t
27	Jonathan Aberdein	BMW Team RMR	BMW	M4 Turbo DTM	BMW P48 Turbo 2.0l I4t
28	Loïc Duval	Audi Sport Team Phoenix	Audi	RS5 Turbo DTM	Audi RC8 TFSI 2.0l I4t
31	Sheldon van der Linde	BMW Team RBM	BMW	M4 Turbo DTM	BMW P48 Turbo 2.0l I4t
33	René Rast	Audi Sport Team Rosberg	Audi	RS5 Turbo DTM	Audi RC8 TFSI 2.0l I4t
51	Nico Müller	Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline	Audi	RS5 Turbo DTM	Audi RC8 TFSI 2.0l I4t
53	Jamie Green	Audi Sport Team Rosberg	Audi	RS5 Turbo DTM	Audi RC8 TFSI 2.0l I4t
62	Ferdinand von Habsburg	Audi Sport Team WRT	Audi	RS5 Turbo DTM	Audi RC8 TFSI 2.0l I4t
99	Mike Rockenfeller	Audi Sport Team Phoenix	Audi	RS5 Turbo DTM	Audi RC8 TFSI 2.0l I4t
Source:

Qualifying

Results

The final qualifying result for the 2020 Assen Race 2 are outlined below:

2020 Assen Race 2 Qualifying Result
Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Time	Gap	Ave. Speed	Grid
1st	33	René Rast	Audi Team Rosberg	1:22.976	—	197.623 km/h	1
2nd	28	Loïc Duval	Audi Team Phoenix	1:23.005	+0.029s	197.554 km/h	2
3rd	4	Robin Frijns	Audi Team Abt	1:23.086	+0.110s	197.361 km/h	3
4th	51	Nico Müller	Audi Team Abt	1:23.103	+0.127s	197.321 km/h	4
5th	99	Mike Rockenfeller	Audi Team Phoenix	1:23.365	+0.389s	196.701 km/h	5
6th	27	Jonathan Aberdein	BMW Team RMR	1:23.411	+0.435s	196.592 km/h	6
7th	62	Ferdinand von Habsburg	Audi Team WRT	1:23.512	+0.536s	196.355 km/h	7
8th	16	Timo Glock	BMW Team RMG	1:23.552	+0.576s	196.261 km/h	8
9th	10	Harrison Newey	Audi Team WRT	1:23.736	+0.760s	195.829 km/h	9
10th	8	Robert Kubica	BMW Team ART	1:23.751	+0.775s	195.794 km/h	10
11th	11	Marco Wittmann	BMW Team RMG	1:23.862	+0.886s	195.535 km/h	11
12th	53	Jamie Green	Audi Team Rosberg	1:23.878	+0.902s	195.498 km/h	12
13th	25	Philipp Eng	BMW Team RBM	1:23.900	+0.924s	195.446 km/h	13
14th	31	Sheldon van der Linde	BMW Team RBM	1:24.085	+1.109s	195.016 km/h	14
15th	13	Fabio Scherer	Audi Team WRT	1:24.090	+1.114s	195.005 km/h	15
	22	Lucas Auer	BMW Team RMR	—			16
Source:

• Bold indicates a driver's best/qualifying time.

Grid

The starting grid for the 2020 Assen Race 2 in shown below:

		13	Fabio Scherer	1:24.090			25	Philipp Eng	1:23.900			11	Marco Wittmann	1:23.862			10	Harrison Newey	1:23.736			62	Ferdinand von Habsburg	1:23.512			99	Mike Rockenfeller	1:23.365			4	Robin Frijns	1:23.086			33	René Rast	1:22.976
	22	Lucas Auer		—		31	Sheldon van der Linde		1:24.085		53	Jamie Green		1:23.878		8	Robert Kubica		1:23.751		16	Timo Glock		1:23.552		27	Jonathan Aberdein		1:23.411		51	Nico Müller		1:23.103		28	Loïc Duval		1:23.005

Race

Results

The final classification of the 2020 Assen Race 2 is displayed below:

2020 Assen Race 2 Result
Pos.	No.	Name	Team	Laps	Race Time	Fastest lap	Pts.
1st	31	Sheldon van der Linde	BMW Team RBM	31	1:13:27.930	1:35.854	25
2nd	4	Robin Frijns	Audi Team Abt	31	+2.621s	1:37.429	181
3rd	51	Nico Müller	Audi Team Abt	31	+3.658s	1:37.612	15
4th	28	Loïc Duval	Audi Team Phoenix	31	+9.414s	1:36.723	122
5th	33	René Rast	Audi Team Rosberg	31	+9.455s	1:37.850	103
6th	16	Timo Glock	BMW Team RMG	31	+9.870s	1:37.547	8
7th	62	Ferdinand von Habsburg	Audi Team WRT	31	+11.048s	1:38.513	6
8th	11	Marco Wittmann	BMW Team RMG	31	+11.666s	1:36.938	4
9th	25	Philipp Eng	BMW Team RBM	31	+12.436s	1:38.932	2
10th	22	Lucas Auer	BMW Team RMR	31	+13.033s	1:37.150	1
11th	99	Mike Rockenfeller	Audi Team Phoenix	31	+14.015s	1:38.327
12th	53	Jamie Green	Audi Team Rosberg	31	+14.396s	1:37.583
13th	27	Jonathan Aberdein	BMW Team RMR	31	+17.018s	1:38.223
14th	8	Robert Kubica	BMW Team ART	31	+17.863s	1:38.438
15th	10	Harrison Newey	Audi Team WRT	30	+1 Lap	1:38.945
Ret	13	Fabio Scherer	Audi Team WRT	21	Accident	1:39.324
Source:

• ³ Indicates a driver was awarded points for qualifying in the top three.
• Bold indicates a driver started from pole.
• Italics indicate that a driver set fastest lap.

Milestones

• Maiden victory for Sheldon van der Linde.
  • van der Linde also recorded his maiden fastest lap.

Standings

Nico Müller would leave the Netherlands with his Championship lead still in a healthy state, the Swiss ace 26 points clear after eight races. Robin Frijns was his closest challenger in second after his strongest DTM weekend, while René Rast had slipped 44 points off in third. Loïc Duval was next up ahead of Timo Glock, the best BMW pilot, with Sheldon van der Linde having moved up to sixth after his maiden win.

Audi Team Abt would retain their commanding position in the Teams' Championship, the German squad having moved onto 302 points for the campaign. Audi Team Rosberg were next up in second, 135 points off the leaders, while Audi Team Phoenix made it an all Audi top three on 123. In the Manufacturers' Championship, meanwhile, Audi had total control having outscored BMW for the eighth consecutive race, moving onto 543 points for the campaign.

2020 Drivers' Championship Pos. Name Pts. +/- 1st Nico Müller 164 ◄0 2nd Robin Frijns 138 ◄0 3rd René Rast 120 ◄0 4th Loïc Duval 71 ◄0 5th Timo Glock 62 ◄0 6th Sheldon van der Linde 60 ▲4 7th Mike Rockenfeller 52 ▼1 8th Jamie Green 47 ▼1 9th Marco Wittmann 44 ▼1 10th Lucas Auer 36 ▼1 11th Philipp Eng 22 ◄0 12th Ferdinand von Habsburg 19 ▲1 13th Jonathan Aberdein 19 ▼1 14th Harrison Newey 1 ◄0 15th Robert Kubica 1 ◄0 16th Fabio Scherer 0 ◄0

2020 Teams' Championship Pos. Name Pts. +/- 1st Audi Team Abt 392 ◄0 2nd Audi Team Rosberg 167 ◄0 3rd Audi Team Phoenix 123 ◄0 4th BMW Team RMG 106 ◄0 5th BMW Team RBM 82 ◄0 6th BMW Team RMR 55 ◄0 7th Audi Team WRT 20 ◄0 8th BMW Team ART 1 ◄0 2020 Manufacturers' Championship Pos. Name Pts. +/- 1st Audi 543 ◄0 2nd BMW 242 ◄0

References

Images and Videos:

• Liveries: byggxx, 'Rennwagen (2020)', dtm.fandom.com/de, (DTM Wiki/de, 2015), https://dtm.fandom.com/de/wiki/Kategorie:Rennwagen_(2020), (Accessed 29/05/2021)

References: