Renger suffers misfortune in debut race

Renger van der Zande was forced to retire from his debut DTM race on Sunday, ending his promising start to the weekend abruptly. The Dutch driver was one of the fastest rookies throughout the race at Hockenheim, until an unfortunate incident left his car severely damaged. The entire hood of his Persson Motorsport machine came off when a car in front slowed dramatically after the safety car restart, leaving him with no other option but to retire from the race after making substantial contact.

“I did not really get away well at the start, but because our race pace is so good, I was able to attack,” said van der Zande. “I outbraked a number of cars and our lap times were really good. Just when I was about to make my second stop, the safety car came out and as a result I lost a few places. After restart I got a brake-tested by an Audi so I lost my hood and I ultimately had to stop.”

“We had the speed for points, but it didn’t happen. It was a very useful weekend and now I look forward to the race at Zandvoort. This is really a fantastic event. For home crowd, I will pull out all the stops!”