Rene Rast

Rene Rast is a German racing driver who has many championship titles on his account and who scored many notable results in different racing disciplines. His most recent success is a championship title in the 2019 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters. It's his second DTM title in three years following his first triumph in 2017.

Previously, he was a three-time champion of the Porsche Supercup and two-time winner of the Porsche Carrera Cup Germany. He was also ADAC GT Masters champion in 2014.

Rast was also successful in famous endurance races all over the world. At Le Mans 24 Hours, he was second in the LMP2 class in 2016. At Daytona 24 Hours, he finished third overall in 2017, scored GT class victory in 2012 and GTD class win in 2016. At Spa 24 Hours, he was a winner two times (2012, 2014). Finally, at Nurburgring 24 Hours, he triumphed once, in 2014.

Rene Rast

René Rast started career in the karting

Rast was born on October 26, 1986, in Minden, in the north-east of Rhein-Westphalia. At the age of eight, Rast gets into the karting races and was a national champion before he moved to Formula BMW.

At the age of 19, he triumphed in Volkswagen Polo Cup and then he was a runner-up in the 2006 Seat Leon Supercopa, missing the first place in the last race.

Rene Rast in Porsche, 2012

Porsche Carrera Cup debut in 2007, champion in 2008

In 2007, Rene moved to the Porsche Carrera Cup in which, as a member of MRS Racing team. Next year his performances were recognized with  the "Motorsport Talent of the Year" award after he won sixth place and was the best in the German Porsche Carrera Cup.

Even better he was in 2009 when he achieved six wins, but he eventually finished as runner-up in the Porsche Supercup.

Rene Rast, 2012 Porsche Supercup champion

Three consecutive titles in the Porsche Supercup

From 2010, Rast begins to drive for Lechner Racing Team and that was beginning of his dominance in Porsche Supercup. He has won three championships in a row. In his first season, he achieved four wins in 10 races, in the following season he was fastest in five of 11 races, and the same number of victories recorded at only eight races in 2012.

The same year, Rene Rast has won his second title in the German Porsche Carrera Cup as a member of Deutsche Post by Project 1 team and also won the GT class at 24 Hours of Daytona, driving a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup for Magnus Racing with co-drivers Andy Lally, Richard Lietz and team owner John Potter.

ADAC GT Masters champion in 2014

In 2013, René Rast performed well in the FIA GT Series as a driver of Belgian Audi Club Team WRT. He won the qualifying race in Baku, finished second at Slovakiaring and was third at Zandvoort and Zolder to finish 8th overall in the Drivers' championship.

Next, Rast’s destination was ADAC GT Masters championship. Paired with Kelvin van der Linde, he won three races and clinched championship title driving the Audi R8 for Christian Abt Racing in which he arrived a year earlier.

René Rast and Kelvin van der Linde, Audi, Prosperia C.Abt - ADAC GT Masters 2014 champions

Le Mans 24h debut in 2014

With the same team, in 2014 Rast has competed in the Blancpain GT Series. The German won the race at Zandvoort and finished third at Algarve and Slovakiaring, but that was enough only for the 5th place in the championship at the end of the season.

In the same time, Rene Rast competed in the FIA World Endurance Championship, driving a Sebastien Loeb Racing's Oreca 03R-Nissan. Actually, he has appeared only at 24 Hours of Le Mans where he was 8th overall and 4th in the class. The following year, Rast switched for Audi Sport Team Joest. This time, he was 7th at Le Mans and 4th at Spa.

Video - Onboard 2014 Le Mans LMP2

DTM remains the main goal

As Rene has stated many times, his next wish is to test himself in the DTM, but in a meantime, he turned focus to endurance racing. In 2016, he acted as a reserve driver in DTM but without too much success.

However, he was more successful in the other series. He won the GTD class in 24 hours of Daytona, finished 2nd in 24 hours of Le Mans in LMP2 class and made a debut in the FIA Formula E Championship with Team Aguri.

Alex Brundle, Roman Rusinov and Rene Rast

During the 2016 Rast also drove in the Blancpain GT Series, driving for Belgian Audi Club Team WRT, but competing in the World Endurance Championship LMP2 class with G-Drive Racing was his main duty.

2017 DTM champion in his rookie season

After debuting in DTM as a replacement driver in 2016, Rast was hired to drive the full DTM season in 2017. He was driving the #33 Audi RS5 DTM. The maiden win came in the third round at Hungaroring, then the second win in the fifth round at Moscow Raceway. He was a race winner for the third time at Red Bull Ring.

Rast entered the season's finale at Hockenheimring as one of four Audi drivers who could take the title. He was sixth in the penultimate race and then second in the last race, clinching a title with three-point advantage over Mattias Ekstrom.

2017 DTM champion

Podiums at Daytona and Nurburgring

While driving for Audi Sport Team Rosberg in the DTM, Rast had guest appearances in two European GT endurance races, but also participated at Daytona 24 Hours in the Prototype class. He finished third overall at Daytona in the #90 Riley-Gibson of Visit Florida Racing, together with Renger van der Zande and Marc Goossens.

Rast was also on a podium at Nurburgring 24 Hours, finishing third with Audi Sport Team WRT. He joined the same team in two rounds of the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Series, finishing sixth at Spa 24 Hours.

First DTM driver with six consecutive wins

In 2018, Rast continued to drive for Team Rosberg in DTM. He suffered a bad crash in the first race of the second round at Lausitzring, sitting out the next race.

He won his first race of the season in the fifth round at Zandvoort and then, in the last six races od the season he scored six consecutive victories, becoming the first driver in the history of DTM to do that. However, he was four points short in the championship fight against Gary Paffett.

One more DTM championship title in 2019

In 2019, Rast dominated in the championship and clinched his second DTM title even before season's finale. He collected six wins in eight rounds (16 races) and celebrated the title in the penultimate round at Nurburgring.

René Rast captured his second DTM title in 2019

Photo: Audi, rene-rast.de eurocarnews.com speedweek.com