René Rast (German pronunciation:[ʁəˈneːˈʁast]; born 26 October 1986) is a German professional racing driver and the 2017, 2019 and 2020 DTM champion. He last competed in Formula E. He claimed overall wins at the 2012 and 2014 24 Hours of Spa, 2014 24 Hours of Nürburgring and two class wins at the 2012 and 2016 24 Hours of Daytona.
Career
After competing in karting and Formula BMW, Rast won the 2005 ADAC Volkswagen Polo Cup and was runner-up at the 2006 Seat León Supercopa Germany.
In 2007, he switched to sports car racing, where he won Porsche Carrera Cup Germany in 2008 and 2012, and Porsche Supercup and claimed three championships from 2010 to 2012. Rast also competed at the ADAC GT Masters from 2010 to 2014, winning the title in his last year.
Rast won the 2012 and 2014 24 Hours of Spa with a factory-supported Audi R8 LMS with teams Phoenix and WRT respectively.
In the 2013 FIA GT Series, he claimed a win and five podiums with an WRT Audi R8. In the 2014 Blancpain Sprint Series, he claimed a win and three podiums. In 2016, he got three podiums with.
Rast debuted at the 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans with a Sébastien Loeb Racing Oreca-Nissan, finishing fourth in the LMP2 class. In 2015, he competed at two rounds of the FIA World Endurance Championship with a factory Audi R18 e-tron quattro, finishing fourth overall at the 6 Hours of Spa and seventh at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. In 2016, he raced full-time for G-Drive with an Oreca-Nissan LMP2, claiming a win at Bahrain and a second place at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and two third-place finishes at Silverstone and Austin.
He won the 2017 DTM title in his first full year driving an Audi RS5 for Team Rosberg.[2] After taking a record-breaking six consecutive race victories the following year, he missed out on a repeat title by only four points.[3] Rast won the 2019 DTM Championship and scored his third series title the following season.[4]
He made his return to the series in the 2022–23 season driving for the McLaren Formula E Team.[8] He scored one podium throughout the season, and ended 13th in the standings. Rast announced his departure from McLaren following the season.[9]
† Did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.
‡ As Rast was a guest driver, he was ineligible to score points.