Rene Rast looks back on the 2018 DTM title fight against Gary Paffett: Why the pressure was so great that he ‘almost collapsed’ before the start of the last race
With three overall victories in 2017, 2019 and 2020, Rene Rast (Schubert-BMW) is now one of the most experienced drivers in the DTM. But that wasn’t always the case. The 2018 DTM title fight, when the then Audi driver was in a duel with Gary Paffett (Mercedes-AMG), has remained particularly memorable for Rast – in a negative sense!
Because “the pressure was so great that I almost collapsed on the grid, just before the start [of the last race of the season],” Rast recalls of the season finale at Hockenheim. “I think that was the most intense moment I’ve ever experienced in racing.”
Looking back, Rast got off to a bad start to the 2018 DTM season. At the opening round at Hockenheim, the Audi driver managed to finish in the top 10 in both races, but the second weekend at the Lausitzring was a low point: a rollover on Saturday prevented him from starting on Sunday – and threw Rast back in the overall standings.
At the Norisring, the now 38-year-old missed out on a top-ten finish twice, as he did in the first race at Zandvoort. It wasn’t until the tenth of 20 races that season that Rast celebrated his first victory of the season. At that point, it seemed unlikely that he would be able to defend the title – but he proved everyone wrong!
Six victories in the last six races
In the strong final sprint of the 2018 DTM season, Rast not only won all four races at the Nürburgring and in Spielberg, but also the Saturday race at the finale in Hockenheim. This suddenly put the Audi driver right back in the thick of the title fight, which, in retrospect, became a personal nightmare for Rast.
“I think the worst [title fight] was in 2018, when we won five races in a row and I had to win the sixth race to win the title, or rather to still be in with a chance of winning,” says Rast, looking back at the situation at the time. Before the last race, Paffett had an eleven-point lead, which Rast would have had to catch up.
“I remember that the whole grandstand was full of Audi flags, everything was red,” says Rast, thinking back to that Sunday in October 2018. ‘The whole Audi Sport family, all the drivers and all the teams were racing for me in the last five races.’
That’s why the pressure was so great in the end that Rast ‘almost collapsed’ shortly before the start of the race. The Audi driver managed to win the race, but in the end, third place was enough for Paffett to win the title. The Briton could have finished no higher than fifth for the result to have gone Rast’s way.
First DTM title “wasn’t really expected”
The current BMW driver only missed out on his second overall DTM victory by four points and only crowned himself champion again in 2019 and 2020. But why wasn’t the pressure as great for his first title in 2017 as it was for the 2018 finale?
“I think when I won my first title [in 2017], I wasn’t really expected to win the championship,” reflects the 38-year-old, who was competing in a four-way battle against his fellow Audi drivers Mattias Ekström, Jamie Green and Mike Rockenfeller.
“So I went into the last race thinking, ‘Okay, maybe I’ll win, maybe I won’t,’” reveals Rast, who needed to finish no lower than second in the final race of 2017 to secure the first DTM title of his career. ‘That’s why the pressure wasn’t that great.’
