Auer had closed the gap to his BMW rival to just two points with victory in Saturday’s opening race, but this left him with 25kg of additional weight on his car for the all-important finale.
Starting 11th on the grid after a red flag in qualifying prevented him from setting a flying lap on new tyres, Auer could only rise as high as seventh in his Winward Mercedes AMG GT3, with a separate 5kg weight increase under Balance of Performance only making his life more miserable.
