Önder Takes Best Result of the Season

Turkish national driver Kaan Önder, who competes in the Audi Sport TT Cup, scored his best result of the season at Austria's Red Bull Ring despite being caught up in a crash involving six cars.

His preparations paid off in qualifying, and among very strong opposition Kaan earned a sixth-place start for both races of the weekend. The gaps between Kaan's lap times and those of the drivers who took the front-row starts were just 0.6 and 0.2 seconds.

The weekend's first race was held on Saturday in dry and very hot conditions. Able to extract the performance and pace he wanted from his car at the start, the driver then suffered understeer in the later laps, but still finished the race eighth among the championship drivers and took 11 points.

On Sunday, in the weekend's second race, Kaan finished fifth. Unfortunately, the conditions at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria, were far from ideal. The race was started behind the safety car and did not last long. It was stopped after a crash involving six cars, including our national driver's car number nine. Kaan was checked at the Red Bull Ring medical centre, and because the race was stopped after the crash, with half points awarded, he was classified fifth.

Speaking about the race, Kaan said: "The weekend ended with a very serious crash. The torrential rain made driving the car very difficult, and it was very unlucky that I got caught up in the accident. In conditions with no visibility, a rival who was trying to pass me lost control. The real problem for me was the other drivers who came from behind and hit my car. My car is very solidly and safely built; I took a few minor knocks but otherwise I'm absolutely fine. I wanted to finish the weekend with good results in both races. Unfortunately the conditions weren't right for that, but compared with my previous races, I scored the most points this weekend. We made real progress in qualifying and we will be much better at Oschersleben."