What is it about Van der Linde racing drivers taking commanding wins in the rain? 21-year old Sheldon Van Der Linde claimed his first DTM win this Sunday in his Team RBM BMW. This win comes just 3 weeks after his maiden podium where he took 2nd place at the DTM Lausitzring race.
After a dry but disappointing qualifying for the South African which saw him start the race in P14, the race was started under wet conditions after a heavy downpour on the Assen TT circuit. All cars started on wet tyres but through some smart tactics by the RBM Team, they pitted Van der Linde earlier than expected for a new set of wets which gave him some clear air and a chance to unleash the full potential of that BMW and the full potential of his own wet race prowess, delivering one fast lap after the other to eventually emerge in the lead after the rest of the teams took their pitstops further into the race.
Of course it was a dream come true for the DTM racer. Reflecting on his race he said, “Winning the race after having started from 14th on the grid is actually unbelievable. It shows that simply anything can happen in the DTM. Of course, the weather helped us as well. Huge thanks to the entire team and to BMW. Our crew has done a tremendous job, the car handled really well. Assen is a good track to test the limits, something that worked out very well here. The restart was a bit tricky, but we were in control throughout. I am overjoyed.”
Van der Linde now sits 6th overall in the driver’s championship, still over 100 points off the leader Nico Muller.
