The Abt Audi driver held the lead at the initial race start from Thomas Preining, but lost out toin the lap seven restart following an opening lap crash that caused a safety car as the Team Bernhard Porsche powered around his outside.
He was able to keep running despite steering damage, but decided to retire while running outside the points to save tyres for Sunday's second race. That followed a bold move, also into Turn 1, in the opening race when he had run wide attempting to pass Lawson. "And then the restarts came and I felt it was a lot more difficult every time as [the Porsches] got into the rhythm and they were able to get good, clean starts. So I was just trying to survive Turn 1 every time."To be honest, I don’t think it was the day to be aggressive. Especially looking back, I didn’t want to be that guy again, so I probably was more cautious than I needed to be in certain scenarios.
DTM Maybe he should re-watch last years race.
DTM Van der linde being cautious. What is happening to this world!?